Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Mr. Bentil said the exam failures were “the culmination of many years of indolence and abstinence,” from the General Legal Council.

[contextly_sidebar id=”35pyZszFsTHgRe5z0PlqztaOrOuBDJKn”]The Student’s Representative Council [SRC] of the school, noted that only 91 of over 500 students passed in all 10 courses from exams taken in May 2017, and subsequently called for the school’s Independent Examinations Board to be scrapped.

The SRC has also called for the remarking of the papers.

The General Legal Council was set up in 1960 to consolidate and amend the Legal Profession Act, 1960 (Act 32) relating to the Legal Profession in Ghana.

The scope of the Legal Profession Act includes organisation of legal education and upholding standards of professional conduct and discipline.

‘Stubborn legal council’

Mr. Bentil asserted that the General Legal Council has refused to take advise from anybody and “have ignored advise over the years.”

“Now you have a problem where instead of following what the law itself says in section 13 of Act 32, that they must use other educational institutions when the law school is inadequate and the provision is in the constitution to make this kind of facility available everywhere, but they just ignored all those things.”

“If they have decided that they will not take good advice, it must mean that they have a better option. But consistently, these people who run legal education have gone from bad to worse and we are in this situation where they are claiming that people who have had at least two years of LLB education cannot pass law school.”

Fight over Legal Profession Regulations

These calls come in the midst of the tensions between students and the Ghana Legal Council over the Legal Profession Regulations Legislative Instrument 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 Regulations.

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.

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By: Eugenia Tenkorang & Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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His comment comes on the back of a call by the Attorney General, Gloria Afua Akuffo, for the Legal Profession Regulations to be withdrawn from Parliament and re-laid due to a procedural error.

This, according to the Attorney General, is because some processes governing such regulations were not adhered to, adding that the regulation was not gazetted on time.

[contextly_sidebar id=”x4L6ez7KFAm8r3PS26cmUTlCHL6jIjWg”]“Your directive to the Ghana Publishing Company Limited to gazette the Regulation after the 22nd of December, 2017, does not meet the requirement of article 11(7) (b) of the 1992 Constitution. I kindly advise that the necessary arrangements are made to ensure that the Legal Profession (Professional and Post-Call Law Course) Regulation, 2017, are re-laid before Parliament in compliance with article 11 (7) of the 1992 constitution,” a letter from the Attorney General to the Parliamentary Committee on Subsidiary Legislation and sighted by citifmonline.com said.

Speaking to Citi News, Kofi Bentil, who is the legal adviser to a group calling itself the Association of Law students who had called on Parliament to annul the regulation, welcomed the Attorney General’s call for the withdrawal of the LI, but urged that before it is re-laid, it should be amended to make legal education in the country more accessible.

“I wish the withdrawal was on substance. Be that as it may, there is a withdrawal. The AG said they should re-lay, what it suggests is that, they might want to go and correct the errors and try and bring it back. If they are going to bring it back, such a controversial L.I. and we are going to have to fight it all over again to have it removed, I think we all go through needless stress when the future is clear that we cannot limit professional law education to only logistical problems of the Ghana School of Law.”

“Best practice everywhere is that, they must expand and allow people who are qualified to take the professional law course. So we hope they do not re-lay it. We actually believe that in the process, there will be some discussions in the back, and I believe reasoning will prevail and that will prevent the relaying of this same L.I. But if it turns out that we cannot agree, the the right place to go is the court,” he added.

Withdraw it now – Muntaka

Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, had on last Thursday, also prayed Parliament to withdraw the Legal Profession Regulations currently before Parliament.

According to him, the legislation, which has been in Parliament for over a month now, has not even been seen by some of the Members of Parliament as they have not received any copies.

Muntaka also alleged that, information available to him suggests the regulation had not been gazetted.

Annul regulation now

Prior to that, a group calling itself, the Association of Law students had called on Parliament to annul the regulation.

The Association of Law Students on January 29, 2018, petitioned President Nana Akufo-Addo to cause the withdrawal of the controversial Legal Profession Regulations 2017 from Parliament.

The Association wants the President to impress on Members of Parliament to vote against the regulation.

The General Legal Council laid the Regulations in Parliament on December 22, 2017, in response to a Supreme Court order for a clear admission procedure into the Ghana School of Law, and call to the Ghana Bar.

The proposed L.I. in question, among other things, states that the General Legal Council will conduct an entrance exam for the admission of students to the school, and conduct interviews for all applicants who pass the Ghana School of Law Entrance Examination.

The LI is expected to become Law this month, February, 2018.

But the law students maintain that if the document is passed in its current form, it will restrict access to legal education.

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By: Godwin A. Allotey & Bobbie Osei/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Amend Law school admission L.I. before relaying it – Kofi Bentil appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to him, the previous government did everything possible to let off the hook the onetime NDC financier, and thus protected him while in government.

[contextly_sidebar id=”uTHCs47uvgjCcs4KQiJgJBFaXUOFE7n3″]”As someone who followed this very closely, the NDC did everything that was possible to let Mr. Woyome off the hook. They protected him in every way possible.”

He expressed regret the government had allowed Mr. Woyome to determine his own payment plan, adding that the current government must be more serious in retrieving the money.

Speaking on Eyewitness News on Thursday [February 22, 2017], Kofi Bentil said, “I expect the current government to be more serious in trying to retrieve the money from Mr. Woyome. I expect the current government not to allow Mr. Woyome walk around as free as he is. I’m not saying anyone should assault him; but he should be put under considerable pressure so that he finds it necessary to pay our money than to keep telling us when he will pay and how much he will pay and keep running around as if he has an option not to pay us.”

“He has a certain attitude and I think that comes from his assurance that the previous government was going to support him. I think the attitude of this government should be such that Mr. Woyome feels that he owes something to Ghanaians and he is prepared to pay otherwise he can expect that he will not have a comfortable stay in this country.”

He added that,  his call for the new government to pursue Mr. Woyome for the money is not to encourage that it breaks the law in retrieving the money, but that it must demonstrate determination and seriousness in pursuing the necessary legal procedures to retrieve it.

I hope gov’t will pursue Woyome cash – Mahama

The matter has come up again for discussion following President John Mahama’s claim that his government had done enough in retrieving the money; and that he expects the new NPP government to continue from where they left off.

President Mahama said this on Thursday when he granted an interview to Power FM, a South African-based radio station. Meanwhile, a private legal practitioner, and a member of the NDC, has challenged criticisms that the party was not committed to retrieving the money.

According to him, the NDC followed the due process in attempts to retrieve the money, and that achieved some positive results as Mr. Woyome had paid some GHs4.5 million from the total sum.

‘How did Woyome owe the state?’

Alfred Agbesi Woyome was paid GH¢ 51 million in a judgment debt after claiming he helped Ghana raise funds to construct stadia to host the 2008 African Cup of Nations; but the government canceled the contract, forcing him to secure a judgement in his favour.

But the Supreme Court in 2014, ordered Mr. Woyome to pay back the money, after Mr. Martin Amidu, a private individual and a former Attorney General, challenged the legality of the payment.

However, several years on, the state is yet to retrieve the money.

It was announced in 2016 that Mr Woyome had agreed to pay the money in tranches, forcing the then Attorney General, Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong to discontinue an application that sought to orally examine him in court.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @jnyabor

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