As Anas digs out rot in Ghana Judiciary, is Parliament next?

LawInvestigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, hasn’t written or released anything yet about his forthcoming completed investigations that focused on Ghana’s obviously overrated and over protected judiciary, but the system is already shaking violently.

Ghana’s judiciary is seen as sacrosanct, and indeed, some of the continent’s best and brightest are Ghanaian judges, who hold high the principles of the law and justice, but some bad nuts have infiltrated the system and have infested it with greed and corruption eventually reducing justice to a commodity which only the highest bidder can afford.

Anas only made reference to his yet to be broadcast work at an event organized by the Media Foundation for West Africa where he said the revelation would shake the very foundation of Ghana’s democracy, and yet reports from various Ghana news outlets indicate that some judges whose names have been mentioned in the yet to be broadcast video are already feeling the heat.

Ghanaians in general have known all along that the Judiciary is corrupt, but each time citizens make the claim, they are asked to provide evidence. Indeed, some lawyers who have made accusations of corruption against the judiciary have been penalized. They have been outlawed from some courts, their clients have been punished and in some cases they have been publicly humiliated.

According to the Daily Graphic newspaper, 180 officials of the Judicial Service have been caught on camera taking bribes and extorting money from litigants. Thirty-four of the suspected culprits are said to be judges at the High, the Circuit and the District courts.

Some of the culprits have also been linked to sex scandals in a three-hour edited video emanating from a two-year investigation into corrupt practices in the Judicial Service, it adds.

According to Starr FM, one of the judges cited in the yet to be released video has been hospitalised over the incident.

Giving the name only as Justice Obimpeh, the report said he is currently on admission at the Nyaho Clinic in Accra, adding that another accused, Justice Charles Quist, has reportedly suffered mild stroke since news of the scandal broke.

Meanwhile, a source close to the journalist says the country’s Parliament could be next. The source however, didn’t say whether the investigation has completed, is ongoing or yet to start.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi

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