The South Dayi Member of Parliament (MP), Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, says the General Legal Council (GLC) must be held responsible for the illegal admission of 10 students into the Ghana School of Law.

A report by a committee of inquiry set up by the General Legal Council has recommended the withdrawal of the students after the said illegality was uncovered.

The investigations into the alleged unlawful admission commenced following allegations that some students who took the exam last year who should not have been admitted were admitted nonetheless.

The MP, who had earlier been denied a formal application for copies of the investigative report, insists the Council cannot escape blame for the current development, which dents the image of legal education in the country.

“The Council itself, as presently constituted, cannot escape blame in the matter because it exercises supervisory, administrative jurisdiction over the board of legal education who are in charge of the Ghana School of Law and its administration.”

“They conduct interviews and recruit directors to ‘man’ the Law School; so, if there are issues bothering on corruption and such related matters in its activities and functions, it is the Council itself that should be held responsible, not individual members,” he told JoyNews in an interview on Thursday.

Following the outcome of investigations, the General Legal Council constituted a three-member Disciplinary Committee made up of Amoak Afoko, Kwaku Gyau Baffour and Professor Raymond Atuguba to subject the then Ag. Director of the Ghana School of Law, Maxwell Opoku-Agyemang, the Registrar and the Deputy Registrar to disciplinary proceedings.

A copy of minutes of a February 14, 2022, GLC meeting sighted by JoyNews notes the following;

“Council decided that the 10 students who were identified in the Committee of Inquiry’s report as having been admitted illegally by the then Acting Director, Maxwell Opoku Agyemang, should be withdrawn immediately from the Ghana School of Law.”

The Secretary to the General Legal Council was to convey this decision to the students.

Beyond these, Mr Dafeamkekpor, who is a Member of Parliament’s Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee, wants sanctions levelled against the entire GLC and its directors.

Background

This year, only 790 out of more than 2,000 students who wrote the exam gained admission into the Ghana School of Law.

Some 499 others who had insisted they had passed have been granted admission following weeks of agitation and legal action.

This comes after a series of agitations and debates between the students and the General Legal Council (GLC), the Attorney-General and Parliament over their supposed failure.

Before their admission, the GLC explained that the students failed to meet the requirements for admission; hence, its decision not to admit them.

The students, however, refuted the decision of the GLC and argued that they met the required threshold.

GLC later rescinded its decision and resolved to admit the students this year after an order from the Attorney-General, on the directive of President Akufo-Addo.

The President requested Godfred Dame to make “the necessary intervention to the General Legal Council, on behalf of the 499 students, to address the issue and advise that the students be admitted into the Ghana School of Law.”

Subsequently, the A-G proffered three alternative solutions from which the Council could choose.

The GLC was directed to grant the 499 students deferred admission into the Ghana School of Law from May 2022 or admit them in November 2021.

The final option was for the GLC to conduct a special examination in November 2021 to allow the 499 students to justify their admission into the Law School for the 2021/22 academic year.

The 499 Bachelors of Law holders form the second batch of students for this academic year, after the first group of 790 students was inducted in January 2022.