Don’t rush us to vet CJ nominee – Minority to Majority
The Minority in Parliament is accusing their colleagues on the other side of rushing with the vetting of the Chief Justice nominee, Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah.
President Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo nominated Justice Anin-Yeboah on December 12, 2019 subject to Parliamentary approval.
But ahead of his vetting scheduled to take place on December 21, the Minority in Parliament has hinted they will boycott the exercise.
They want the exercise done after the Christmas break to allow proper scrutiny of the process.
“We believe that our colleagues from the Majority are either being influenced or whatever it is are trying to get us to rush through the process. And we thought that the calibre of person of the Chief Justice, this will not be good for the Chief Justice’s image and the image of the institution and also the image of Parliament” Minority Chief Whip Muntaka Mubarak said.
He also questioned the delay in appointing a new Chief Justice to succeed the out going Justice Akuffo.
“You knew three years ago when you were appointing Justice Sophia that her tenure will end December 20 why did you wait till it was left with only one week before appointing another?” he quizzed.
The vetting of justices of the superior court in Ghana can be long and arduous. While Justice Georgina Theodora Wood spent more than eight hours before Parliament’s Appointment Committee, her successor, Justice Sophia Akuffo on June 16, 2017 spent 10 hours before the legislators.
Justice Yeboah’s journey so far
Justice Yeboah is the first male Chief Justice to be appointed in 12 years.
He takes over from Justice Akuffo who bows out after almost two years in office as Chief Justice and 24 years on the Supreme Court.
When approved, he will be Ghana’s 26th Chief Justice since 1876.
Justice Anin Yeboah is currently the fourth longest-serving Justice of the Supreme Court.
He graduated from the Ghana School of Law in 1981 and he was appointed to the Supreme Court by President John Agyekum Kufuor in June 2008.
Prior to that, he served as a Justice of the High Court from 2002 to 2003 and a Justice of the Court of Appeal from 2003 to 2008.
Apart from being a Supreme Court Justice, Justice Anin Yeboah is also a part-time lecturer in Civil Procedure and the Ghana Legal System at the Ghana School of Law.