Minority Vote Against All 7 New Justices To Supreme Court

Members of the Minority Caucus in Parliament who serve on the Appointments Committee have voted against all seven Appeal Court judges nominated by President John Mahama to be vetted and approved as justices of the Supreme Court.

Committee Chairman, First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Bernard Ahiafor, in presenting the Committee’s report on the vetted seven nominees revealed that they had to be passed by a majority decision because the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentarians on the Committee voted for the nominees.

Parliament went ahead and approved the nomination of all seven justices for appointment to the Supreme Court but that was after a protracted heated opposition by the Minority side of the House.

The seven approved nominees are: Justice Janapare Bartels-Kodwo, Justice Hafisata Amaleboba, Justice Sir Dennis Dominic Adjei, Justice Gbiel Simon Suurbaareh, Justice Senyo Dzamefe, Justice Kweku Tawiah Ackaah-Boafo and Justice Philip Bright Mensah.

According to the Minority Caucus, they do not doubt the competencies of the seven Justices and they fully agree all seven are qualified and fit for appointment to the Supreme Court.

The reservation and objection, the Minority explained, had to do with what they describe as a contradictory stance by the appointing authority and the double standards of the NDC Parliamentarians about nominations to the Supreme Court.

Even before the Committee report was tabled, Minority Leader, Osahen Afenyo-Markin, put up a strong opposition urging the Speaker to disallow it from being laid.

“why are they in a hurry? Is there something they know that I do not know? Mr. Speaker, it is a 137-page report and it is now being distributed to Members. Even on the Majority side, I don’t think they all have received copies and even if they have, I don’t think they have all read it so let us postpone this and wait till Thursday”, Afenyo-Markin argued but the Speaker ruled the report should be laid.

Even before the vetting of the seven nominated Justices, Afenyo-Markin had officially made known the reasons his side of the House were against the nomination.