Anti-graft campaigner, Martin Amidu, has accused the judges who supposedly rejected bribes in the judicial corruption exposé of wrongdoing, for failing to report the alleged attempt to compromise them.
Mr. Amidu has been engaged in a heated argument with Anas over the latter’s method used in exposing alleged corruption in the judiciary in a two-year investigative piece.
Among other things, Mr. Amidu has alleged that Anas was sponsored by government to carry out the investigation which protected some corrupt politicians and judges.
[contextly_sidebar id=”L2JqtmPTYDp4gp6nNJRN46PWB7fQHyxb”]Although Anas and his TigereyePI private investigative firm have denied Mr. Amidu’s claims, the former Attorney-General has justified them.
Mr. Amidu has questioned Anas’ claim that some judges rejected his bribery attempt demanding that he produces the video to support that claim.
He further argued that if the judges indeed rejected the influence and yet failed to report it, then they deserve to be sanctioned by the Chief Justice.
“Making ex parte contacts with and discussing pending cases with the undercover investigators without report it to the Judicial Secretary, the Chief Justice, the police or informing the real parties to the trial until the investigators made it public years after the event is suspected misconduct under rules 2, 3(7), and 4(A) of the Code of Conduct of Judges and Magistrates of Ghana. Now that they have disclosed to the public the names and pictures of the judges and judicial officers to report the ex parte discussions constitutes praise worthy conduct or misconduct for purposes of impeachment”.
Martin Amidu reiterated his point in an interview on Eyewitness News on Thursday.
“If Anas is having the video for everything he has done, then he should give it the Chief Justice to confirm whether indeed those judges refused to be bribed. Or it could be that Anas is just lying just because he wants credibility for the fact that he has exposed judges; so he now comes out to say that some refused the bribe. It is not for Anas to hide those videos. Why should we in the first place believe somebody who is doing surveillance contrary to sections 29, 30, and 31 of the Security Intelligence Services Act? “.
He added “If Anas can’t provide the video on those judges, then he is lying. I haven’t heard any judge saying that he was approached and he refused to accept a bribe. Their pictures were only displayed. If they agree that Anas approached them and they refused and yet they didn’t tell the parties involved in the case, indeed those cases can be overturned by the affected people because there was ex parte conduct”.
But a private legal practitioner, Chris Ackumey, disagreed with Mr. Amidu’s position that the judges would be deemed to have acted wrongly if they did not make a report of the attempted bribery.
He said the judges’ act deserves praise rather than condemnation.
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By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana