U.S-based Ghanaian legal practitioner, Prof Kwaku Asare, has criticised the General Legal Council (GLC) for inviting a media house following an interview it conducted on the law school entrance exams.

The fierce GLC critic said the Council abused its powers when it summoned ABC TV to appear before a panel over the interview.

“Let us look at what they sent to ABC TV. It was a letter written by the Judicial Secretary following the direction of the Chief Justice to appear before an unnamed committee of the General Legal Council and to produce certain documents.

“The Chief Justice has no power to direct the Judicial Secretary to invite anyone to produce or do anything. That is just an abuse of power,” Prof Kwaku Asare, known popularly as Kwaku Azar, said on Joy FM’s Top Story, Tuesday.

The GLC, administrators of legal education in Ghana, summoned the ABC TV manager, Gordon Asare Bediako, to appear before a committee by 1pm on Tuesday.

Gordon Asare Bediako, the producer of the programme on which the controversial entrance exam was discussed, was ordered to come with a full recording of the recent interview.

He was to come before the committee with Mr Kwaku Ansa Asare, who is also a fierce critic of the GLC and Rector of Mountcrest University College (MUC).

Gordon Asare Bediako told Top Story host, Evans Mensah that, the Chief Justice, Sophia Akufo, chaired the committee that engaged him and Mr Ansa.

Commenting on the invitation, Prof Kwaku Asare said the move by the GLC was merely a charade.

“It is a power move to intimidate the media and the lawyers,” he described it.

Media watchdog, Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has criticised as inappropriate, the GLC’s decision to invite ABC TV. Executive Director of MFWA, Sulemana Braimah, told JoyNews that if the Council is offended by a publication by a media house, it can seek redress with the media regulator, the National Media Commission (NMC).

Controversial law entrance exam

This year, over 90 per cent of students who sat for the Ghana School of Law entrance examination failed to make the cut for admission.

Results showed that of the 1,820 candidates who sat for the entrance exams, only 128, representing 7 per cent. The mass failure comes on the back of a similar failure in the Ghana Bar exam a few months ago.

More than 90 per cent of the 727 students who wrote that exams failed, sparking agitation amongst the students.

Agitated students marched to Parliament where they presented a petition to have the GLC address what they termed a “systemic problem” at the Ghana School of Law.

Key among their concerns were the mass failure, the fees charged for resit and remarking, as well as the policy of rewriting all papers if a student fails more than three papers.

Watch more from Top Story in the video below.