Ghana’s first Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, threw a subtle jab at the General Legal Council (GLC) during his swearing in on Friday.
During his acceptance speech, he recalled the support of his Hall Tutor at Commonwealth Hall who essentially saved his law ambitions.
[contextly_sidebar id=”slUrFESCOefIiJ8nrCaccnSeplTuSIWm”]Expressing his gratitude, Mr. Amidu recounted his experience with this lecturer, Professor J.N.D. Doodoo, “without whom I may not have been available for this [Special Prosecutor] job.”
“He ensured that I was not cheated out by the exclusion of my name from the LLB class list at the Faculty of Law after my first university exams when I had qualified for placement on the programme by merit… His actions almost 43 years ago contributed in no small measure to my position, my passion for the defence of truth, fairness, integrity, transparency and merit in public life, and he must be publicly acknowledged for once.”
“The General Legal Council may have a lot to learn from him [Professor J.N.D. Doodoo] at this time with the problems at the Ghana school of Law,” he concluded.
General Legal Council under fire
Mr. Amidu’s story comes in the wake of increased tensions between students and the General Legal Council over issues having to do with admissions into the Ghana School of Law and the Legal Profession Regulations LI before Parliament.
A group calling itself the Concerned Law Students, has threatened to seek redress at the Supreme Court if Parliament fails to withdraw the controversial Legal Profession Regulation.
The Association of Law Students has also petitioned President Nana Akufo-Addo over the matter.
The regulation, which will determine qualifications procedure into the Ghana School of Law, has been met with fierce resistance from the law students.
The students have described the LI as a deliberate attempt by the council to frustrate them in violation of their rights.
But the General Legal Council, which oversees legal education in Ghana, has argued that the exams and interviews are to ensure higher standards in legal education.
Law School SRC angry after over 80% fail exams
The Student’s Representative Council [SRC] of the Ghana School of Law, has called for the school’s Independent Examinations Board to be scrapped, describing it as a threat to legal education in Ghana, after only 91 of the over 500 students passed the May exams in 2017.
Protocol dictates that these students re-sit the exams, but the SRC has demanded that the results are scrapped, to allow the students to proceed with their six-month internship in March.
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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana