A former Chief of Staff, Nana Ato Dadzie, has challenged the constitutionality of the decision by some members of the Association of Magistrates and Judges of Ghana (AMJG) to recuse themselves from hearing cases involving Dr Raymond Atuguba and three other legal practitioners. Nana Dadzie, who is also a legal practitioner, said that decision was not only a breach of natural justice, particularly the right to be heard, but also “dangerous” and an attempt to throw the country into a constitutional crisis. Speaking to the Daily Graphic in an interview last Friday, he challenged the legal capacity of the AMJG to bring an action against the four lawyers. He averred that members of the association could not be the prosecutors and at the same time their own judges against the four lawyers by requesting the General Legal Council, which is constituted by judges, to decide on a disciplinary action against the four. The AMJG, on May 18, 2011, petitioned the General Legal Council against what it described as “attacks by members of the legal profession”. In its petition, the association said, “It is our view that this mischievousness and evident lack of professionalism on the part of an increasing number of legal practitioners, if not checked, will plunge the judiciary into ridicule, contempt and opprobrium and have deleterious effect on the rule of law.” It, therefore, called on the council to take effective steps to curtail and reverse the “disturbing trends depicted by the foregoing”. It further called on the council to investigate four lawyers - Dr Raymond Atuguba, Mr. Abraham Amaliba, Mr. Laary Bimi and Mr. David Annan- who it claimed had made disparaging remarks about the judiciary at a forum of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE). Before the council could invite the four lawyers to hear their side of the story, some judges at the Supreme Court, on May 19, 2011, refused to sit on a case in which Mr. Atuguba was counsel. Nana Dadzie questioned the legal capacity of the AMJG, contending that the platform on which three of the lawyers had allegedly made the remark had been created by a constitutional body. “It is like the association petitioning the council to penalise the Speaker of Parliament, who happens to be a lawyer, for making a disparaging remark against the judiciary, he stressed. “The NCCE platform on which the three lawyers spoke was a constitutionally privileged platform created by the NCCE Let us not attempt to throw the country into a constitutional crisis,” he added. Quoting Article 231 of the 1992 Constitution which established the NCCE to support his argument, Nana Dadzie said the NCCE is an independent constitutional body which “shall not be subject to the direction or control of any person or authority in the performance of its function. “Much as I disagree with anyone who lumps all judges as being corrupt, the perception of corruption about judges is not new,” he said. He said many in society, including the Chief Justice, Mrs. Justice Theodora Wood, had, on numerous platforms and in speeches, expressed grave concern over the perception about judges and called for efforts to eliminate the unfortunate image about some members of the Judiciary “There is, therefore, the need for interlink-ages. If we create antagonism between these agencies, there is the tendency to throw the country into chaos,” he said. Source: Daily Graphic