<<Print>>

A member of the communication team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has asked Ghanaians to disregard some comments former President John Rawlings made recently during conferment ceremony in his honour. The NDC communicator Bernard Anim Piesie, speaking on Okay FM in Accra likened Flt. Lt. Dr. Rawlings�s comments to the latter�s infamous �Atta Mortuary man� joke some time ago at an NDC function. He said Dr. Rawlings�s recent remarks about helping to clean the Judiciary over acts of perceived corruption should be taken on the lighter side. The former President known for his �boom� speeches was in the news recently. The University of Development Studies (UDS) conferred an Honourary Doctorate Degree on him for the indispensable role he played in the establishment of the institution. Delivering a speech at the ceremony, Dr. Rawlings told Ghanaians �The journey for an independent, incorruptible Judiciary has only just begun. We know and hear of massive corruption also in the Judiciary, in lower courts and in commercial courts. Millions of dollars are lost each year due to dubious judgment debts. Cases are settled many times with influence of bribes; sometimes national security is compromised by corrupt court rulings, sometimes crooks can even cause illegal detention of foreign sovereign assets because some judge gave restraining orders�. He on that same platform entreated the Chief Justice and the entire judiciary to rigorously reflect on the developments he had mentioned in order to vindicate the judiciary. ��Build on your newly-established credibility and independence by engaging in a thorough house-cleaning exercise to purge the Judiciary of real and perceived corruption�, Dr. Rawlings said. But Anim Piesie said �Rawlings simply created humor with the judicial clean-up exercise because we all know that he has no experience in house-cleaning but just that at that moment he wanted people to laugh as he has been seen on so many platforms�but if the poor citizens of this country are to trust that the Justice system is for them, and then this Justice must not be for sale to the highest bidder by way of bribes and corrupt practices�.