Former President John Dramani Mahama has called for a balancing out of Ghana's bench which he says is currently packed with persons who are sympathetic to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

He has thus called on lawyers in the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to prepare themselves to get onto the bench in order to balance out the massive appointments Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has made onto the bench in the last seven years.

“You can see what the current president has done, he has appointed the biggest number of judges onto the bench, it is more than 80 towards 100 and counting," he noted in a virtual address to the 3rd Annual Lawyers Conference of the NDC on Saturday, September 2.

“He has packed the court and we know they have packed the court because they want to avoid accountability after they have left office. We must be prepared as NDC legal persons to also go onto the bench so that we can balance out the judiciary.

“Currently, the judiciary is packed with NPP-inclined judges because this government has carried out a deliberate policy of putting their people on to the bench.

“So, I encourage some of you to look at careers on the bench so that we can balance out what the current situation is,” he added.

The issue of appointments onto the bench has been topical under this government with allegations that politically exposed people have been appointed by the president.

The 2024 flagbearer of the NDC, John Mahama has descended heavily on the currently nomenclature of the judiciary describing them as NPP inclined judges.#MiddayLive pic.twitter.com/oeRue2HRsY

— #TV3GH (@tv3_ghana) September 2, 2023

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