The Deputy Minister of Education, Mr Mahama Ayarigah has emphasized that the government of the National Democratic Congress has no intention to, whether by fair of foul means, remove the Chief Justice, Mrs Georgina Theodora Wood, from office. He said the government had absolute confidence in the Chief Justice and respects the independence of the judiciary. Mr Ayariga was speaking on Joy FM’s news analysis programme, Newsfile Saturday in respect of a threat to the CJ by a group calling itself the Network of Social Democrats and a subsequent apology for the threat. The group had threatened to force Mrs Wood out of office through a narrow window if she refused to resign her position in 14 days. But they subsequently apologized saying they had chosen the wrong words and tone to convey their message. Mr Ayariga, who stopped short of condemning the group, said no person or group of persons “should be allowed to intimidate the judiciary especially under an NDC government.” He said given the history of the NDC under whose antecedence – PNDC – three high court judges were abducted and murdered, threats to the judiciary did not bode well for the integrity of the party. Mr Ayariga, who is also a former Member of Parliament for Bawku Central however maintained that the judiciary must recognize that the general populace appear to be dissatisfied with their performance. For him, the judiciary has no power other than what is conferred on them by the people and that it was time the judiciary realised that its defenders are the people and they are disgruntled. Contributing to the discussion, the Editor-In-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, said leading members of the governing NDC, especially the party Chairman, Dr Kwabena Adjei, had, through their public utterances sowed seeds of hatred against the judiciary in the hearts of the supporters of the party. He said the development was particularly disturbing because prior to the dastardly act of cowardice which led to the murder of the three High Court judges on June 30 1982, similar agitations had been made about unfairness, miscarriage of justice, corruption, and bias against the judges who reversed certain decisions of the Armed Forced Revolutionary Council (AFRC) through which former president Rawlings first burst into the political scene.