• Legal luminary Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare has described the CJ dragging Dr Ayine to GLC as unnecessary

• This development, he said makes him doubt that the culture of silence is inexistent in the country

• Prof. Asare added that the harshest criticisms made against judges come from judges themselves


Legal luminary Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare has said the Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah taking on Dr Dominic Ayine over his comment on judiciary independence is evident that the country is witnessing the ‘Culture of silence’.

Dr Ayine, while contributing to a discussion on the 2020 presidential election petition and its impact on Africa’s Democracy, organised by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Ghana in May 2021, said some Justices’ decisions leave a lot to be desired.

The Judicial Secretary petitioned the disciplinary committee of the General Legal Council (GLC) to investigate the Bolgatanga East MP’s comments which the court describes as defamatory to the justices.

Speaking on Joy News’ Newsfile, monitored by GhanaWeb, Professor Kwaku Asare said Dr Ayine’s subjective view does not claim that the judiciary lacks independence.

“If you talk to 10 million Ghanaians on the election petition, you’re going to get 10 million opinions. Are we then going to refer 10 million Ghanaians to the general legal council to investigate?. This could actually make people silent for fear of being taken on for their criticisms.

“The disciplinary process is extremely serious because it imposes cost on whoever is sent there. You have to defend yourself, and potentially, you could be suspended, you could be disbarred, you could be reprimanded, you could be asked to offer an apology,” he said.

Prof. Kwaku Asare believes that the legal profession welcomes criticisms and Dr Ayine’s GCL referral “unprecedented, unnecessary, unfortunate, unwise and quite frankly unjust”.

He further said that some of the harshest criticisms made against judges come from judges themselves.

“When you read opinions where some judges are dissenting, they sometimes say the majority is irrational, the majority ignores precedence, and the majority is out of their depth on this matter.”