Judges bribery scandal is unacceptable – President Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama has described the alleged Anas Aremeyaw Anas bribery scandal among the judges and some judicial service workers as unacceptable.

He said his administration would provide assistance that would expose subsequent scandals and punish those found culpable in such cases.

President Mahama was answering a question posed by a student of the Bordeaux University on how his administration was handling the scandal of the judges after delivering a lecture in the school.

He said the exposure of the judges as captured by the investigative Journalist was a test case for the institutions in the country, as government was putting more measures to strengthen them against all sort of malpractices including bribery and corruption.

President Mahama said although bribery and corruption was not peculiar to only Ghana, his administration would put in place workable measures that would make it unattractive in the system.

He said inspite of the embarrassment the exposure had brought to the mentioned Judges, their families and country, Ghana still had a lot to cheer about since 11 of the Judges turned down the offer and even threatened to report the Journalists to the police.

“All this time people are concentrating on the Judges that accepted bribes but are not mentioning 11 others who refused to take it and even threatened to report the journalist to the police.”

On the alleged bloated voter register, President Mahama said he would not interfere in the activities of the Electoral Commission, since it was an independent institution, adding that his administration would however accept any decision taken by the Commission.

He said the fact that individuals and groups could challenge government decisions even up to the courts was an indication that democracy was triumphing and called on all to embrace constitutions that could offer their people rights and responsibilities.

President Mahama challenged his colleague African leaders to place women in more responsible positions as they could equally perform better in their given roles in government and other public service.

He denounced the African practice of withdrawing girls from school for marriage, adding that, was a disservice to the girl child education that was being espoused throughout the continent.

Source: GNA