A former Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Peter Ala Adjetey, has called on judges to maintain independence in their judicial conduct.He said that was necessary for the rule of law to flourish in a democratic society like Ghana. He urged judges to be competent with the knowledge of the law."They should likewise posses enough courage to be able to withstand any attempts from whatever source to interfere with the way or manner in which they discharge their judicial functions", he said.Mr. Ala Adjetey, also a former President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), was delivering the 25th in the series of this year's Sarkodee, Koranteng-Addow and Agyepong Memorial Lecture in Accra. The lecture was instituted 25 year ago by the GBA in memory of the three judges who were abducted and murdered in the early hours of June 30, 1982.On that fateful day the judges, Mr. Justice Fred Poku Sarkodee, Mrs. Justice Cecilia Koranteng-Addow and Mr. Justice Kwadwo Adjei Agyepong, together with a retired Army Major Sam K. Acquah were abducted during curfew hours from their homes and murdered at the Bundase Military Range in the Accra Plains and their bodies doused with petrol and set on fire.Mr. Ala Adjetey noted the permanent damage done to the cause of justice, the rule of law and democracy in our infant state by the cruel murders of the three judges and the retired army officer.He asked: "Can we say that the effect of the assassination of the three judges and the retired army officer has not been such as to instill fear in those called upon to exercise the sacred responsibility of administering justice or of the management of personnel in commercial, industrial and other establishment in Ghana."He remark: "It is not easy to answer these questions in one way or the other".Mr. Ala Adjetey offered a practical suggestion, saying: "Surely there must be steps that can be taken by the security agencies in conjunction with the judiciary, so as to entrust every superior court judge into the hands of a senior security officer with whom he or she can communicate instantaneously at the first sign of any attempt to undermine their security".He stated: "We have, however, after 25 years, failed to take or to put in place any concrete or positive steps to ensure that a recurrence of the assassinations would be well-nigh impossible or at least difficult to achieve".Source: GNA