CJ, ATTA AKYEA SENT TO CHRAJ, DAILY GRAPHIC, JUNE 2, 2011 (FRONT C)

Story: Della Russel Ocloo

A Public Interest Lawyer, Mr Sam Pee Yalley, has petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to investigate the Member of Parliament for Abuakwa North, Mr Samuel Atta-Akyea, for judicial corruption, abuse of human rights and administrative injustice.

He is also calling on the commission to equally investigate the Chief Justice (CJ), Mrs. Georgina Theodora Wood, for her alleged role in empanelling a court on a public holiday and as well as allegedly coaching lawyers as to what to say and do in furtherance of the conspiracy to prohibit the elections in the Tain constituency in the Brong Ahafo Region on January 4, 2009.

That, he said, was an abuse of her judicial and administrative powers.

Mr Yalley, in a 15-point petition to the Commissioner, which is also copied to the Speaker of Parliament, is also seeking CHRAJ to take immediate steps to establish facts of Mr Akyea’s role to seek an order of court to prohibit the Chairman of the Electoral Commission from conducting the elections in Tain.

Mr Yalley, who attached a tape recorded conversation purported to be Mr Akyea’s voice as evidence, described the conduct of the MP as treasonable attempts calculated to subvert provisions of the 1992 Constitution.

The petitioner pointed out that Mr Akyea in the said recorded conversations indicated that the CJ, after convening a court on New Year’s Day, coached him about how to go about the case a situation Mr Yalley described as the MP using his family relations with Mrs Wood whose sister he married to subvert the constitution for private and political gain.

The recorded conversation, according to Mr Yalley, revealed the CJ’s intention to withdraw Justice Asante, who was appointed to hear the case earlier, following his association with Mr Ato Ahwoi, a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and owner of CASHPRO, a company, the judge was said to have worked with in the past.

That, he said, prompted Mrs. Wood who allegedly relayed a message that he raised the issue of bias against the judge.

Mr Yalley contends that the aforementioned issues apart from amounting to attempts to infringe on the fundamental human rights of some Ghanaians were equally treasonable.

The MP’s conduct, he said, had also corrupted the judicial system and should therefore be brought to book with his conspirators.