Friday,
April 12, 2013
Retired Supreme Court Justice Francis Kpegah’s legal action
against the NPP’s Akufo-Addo at the Fast Track Division of the High Court will
begin being heard on April 23, barring any hitch.
The Writ of Summons and Statement of Claim, and the Application,
Request to Admit Fact, under Order 23, r 2(1) of the C.I.47, and the reliefs
found on the writ of summons are clear on what Justice Kpegah is challenging Akufo-Addo
on (for impersonating one W.A.D. Akufo-Addo, who is on the Roll of Lawyers as
number 1190, among others).
And Akufo-Addo has already admitted that he is that William Addo
Dankwa Akufo-Addo, paving the way for the motive behind Justice Kpegah's suit
to be revealed when the case opens.
Some have questioned the justification for this suit. Akufo-Addo
himself has done so, claiming in his response to the suit that he had appeared
several times before Justice Kpegah to defend clients in cases and that if
Justice Kpegah knew all along that he wasn’t what he claimed to be (a lawyer called
to the English Bar in July 1971 and enrolled in the General Legal Council on
July 8, 1975, and, therefore, qualified to practise law in Ghana), what took
him so long to do what he is now doing?
Others have quickly concluded that what Justice Kpegah is doing
is to serve the interests of the NDC or that he is an Ewe and is envious of the
accomplishments of a non-Ewe (Read the Ghanaweb opinion piece by one
Okoampa-Ahoofe to see things for yourselves).
Still, some have questioned the motive for Justice Kpegah’s
suit, which is what I want to tackle in this opinion piece. I do so, not
because as an Ewe, I want to join Justice Kpegah to hound and haunt Akufo-Addo but
because I am interested in helping find a closure to the spate of allegations
against this one man who looms large on the political and legal scenes (for more
woe than weal).
Let’s
consider some of the possible motives that some have raised as informing
Justice Kpegah’s suit.
1.
A conscientious citizen doing his duty to state
and citizens, seeking the “truth” (that he claims to know) to be established
about Akufo-Addo, the “legal luminary” that he is to his followers.
2.
Vindictiveness— because of the raw deal given
him on the bench, having his junior (Justice Georgina Theodora Wood) elevated
over him as the Chief Justice of Ghana by Kufuor? If so, then, he must be
really peeved to not want to let go many years after that event had happened
when Akufo-Addo was the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General.
Justice
Kpegah must really have a big garden in his heart for nursing such a seed of grievance
and enmity. Now, the seedling has matured and produced poisonous fruit ready
for harvesting. Will he turn this fruit into hemlock and force down
Akufo-Addo’s throat?
3.
Justice Kpegah is certainly more inclined to
the NDC than he would ever be to the NPP. Thus, there is a strong motivation
for him at the level of partisan politics to see Akufo-Addo (as Flagbearer of
the NPP and the defeated Presidential candidate fighting tooth and nail to be
declared Ghana’s President) as an appropriate target. He seems bent on
thwarting Akufo-Addo’s efforts to realize his ambition. This suit is the
missile with which to shoot him down from his lofty heights of egoism.
Willy-nilly,
Justice Kpegah is on retirement and has nothing to gain or lose in life. It
seems he knows where he is but won’t want to depart this world without
disburdening himself of what he has held close to his chest about Akufo-Addo all
these years. From his own statement declaring his suit against Akufo-Addo, he
did say that he took this action after painstaking investigations and his
conviction that something “fishy” exists about Akufo-Addo’s professional
stature that he must answer to in court.
Justice
Kpegah is already 77 years old and Akufo-Addo just chalked 69. Two old men with
much clout in the legal profession are gearing up to face off in court. We will
see who will be knocked down and out.
4.
Timing: Some are asking why Justice Kpegah timed
his suit for this period. Is it meant to achieve any politically motivated
objective? Of course, we know that Akufo-Addo is in court to seek redress after
being defeated at Election 2012. His case has attracted so much public interest
as to dominate public discourse over the past four months. No one dreamt of
what lay ahead.
All
of a sudden, Justice Kpegah has surfaced from a self-effacing retirement life
to overshadow that Supreme Court case, putting Akufo-Addo on the spot, and
raising the stakes about his credibility. No doubt, any mention of Akufo-Addo’s
name now evokes more of this lawsuit on impersonation against him than the
election petition that he has filed at the Supreme Court to keep himself in the
limelight.
Whether
for good or bad, Justice Kpegah’s lawsuit has cast Akufo-Addo in a “strange”
light, more so when he is out of the public domain, making his presence felt
all this while with only one statement wishing Ghanaians a happy Easter and
expressing regret at the death of Margaret Thatcher. Even when his birthday
fell on Friday, March 29, he remained in the shadows.
Apparently,
his followers have been really active, doing overtime through the open insults
that they have hurled at Justice Kpegah as part of the campaign of vilification
that they have mounted against him, probably to intimidate him into
discontinuing the legal challenge or to create doubts about his credibility and
prejudice the upcoming determination of his suit.
Justice
Kpegah's suit has overshadowed that election petition and sent him scrambling
for documents to confirm his professional status. So far, only NOTES have
emerged because he claims to have lost his qualifying and enrolment
certificates. Our investigation into this matter is in full throttle and we
will definitely make known whatever emerges. It is all in the attempt to
establish the truth.
Then,
the actual dancing will begin. Those dancing themselves lame through all manner
of antics, insults, and name-calling had better save their energy and limbs for
that moment, which promises to be thrilling.
Of course, the onus lies on Justice Kpegah to prove his case
against Akufo-Addo, no matter what his motive for suing him might be; if this suit
is just a house of cards that Justice Kpegah has mounted, it will collapse on
him. If that does happen, may God bless him.
Why will he choose to do so, picking on no mean a person but the
NPP’s flagbearer? Does Justice Kpegah not know the dire consequences of such a
venture? If he does, why should he put his retirement life on the line?
Considering the mud into which this suit has dragged
Akufo-Addo’s reputation, it will be the weirdest happening in our contemporary
times if it ends just because of a fatal flaw in Justice Kpegah’s suit that the
Akufo-Addo defence team is seeking to capitalize on. I suppose he isn’t too
“senile” (as those insulting him have labelled him) to begin losing his
bearings in the very legal landscape that has supported his life for over 42
years until he retired a few years ago to await the planned end of his life.
No matter how the matter proceeds, Justice Kpegah must brace
himself up for dire consequences and take prompt steps to ensure that what he
has set in motion doesn’t end up knocking him down and out in the very first
second of the legal battle of wits.
As for us, we will continue to monitor the situation from afar
and comment on it as and when necessary unless the Court gags us. We have the
right to know how the tide flows and that’s exactly why we have positioned
ourselves at vantage points to peek into the matter. We are now scrutinizing
the details of information gathered from the Honourable Society of the Middle
Temple. Whatever we see, we will report.
I shall return…
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E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
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