The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has warned that the alleged partisan conduct of the Chief Justice risks undermining public confidence in Ghana’s Judiciary.

The party said the head of the Judiciary must be seen to be politically neutral, particularly at a time when several politically sensitive cases involving members of the opposition are before the courts.

The Chief Justice, during a visit to the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) on Wednesday, September 2, praised the performance of MIIF and other state institutions.

He said some of the developments he had witnessed had left him wondering what Ghana had been doing over the previous eight years.

“I must congratulate you. I mean, you have done marvellously well. See, because sometimes when we hear the things that you have done, the things that some organisations are doing now, we wonder; some of us keep wondering what really we have been doing in the past eight years,” Justice Baffoe-Bonnie said.

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He made the comments after visiting the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), where he said he had also been impressed by what he was told about the institution’s performance.

Comparing the situation to previous plans to dispose of some SSNIT assets, including Labadi Beach Hotel, the Chief Justice said: “If you compare that to the fact that not too long ago, SSNIT was preparing to sell its prized assets like Labadi Beach Hotel, you wonder how Ghana could have sunk so low.”

According to the NPP, comments by the Chief Justice comparing the performance of the current NDC administration to the previous NPP government, coupled with his stated commitment to ensuring the success of President John Dramani Mahama’s agenda, create serious questions about the independence of the Judiciary.

“What conclusion is an accused person standing in the dock, or indeed any citizen, to draw?” the NPP asked.

The party argued that the perception of judicial independence was just as important as the actual independence of the courts.

It said a Chief Justice must not conduct himself in a manner that gives litigants or the wider public reason to believe that political considerations could influence judicial decisions.

“A Judiciary that vows loyalty to a President’s agenda is no Judiciary at all; it is a third chamber of Jubilee House, distinguished only by its robes,” the NPP stated.

The opposition party therefore urged the Chief Justice to immediately retract what it described as partisan commentary and his vow of loyalty to the President’s agenda.

It warned that failure to do so would further deepen public concerns about the independence and credibility of the Judiciary.

“The courtroom is the last refuge of the ordinary Ghanaian, and the NPP will resist its conversion into an instrument of political persecution with every lawful means at our disposal,” the party said.