April 6, 2013 (Lead Story)
The 2012 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP),
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has entered appearance, through his
lawyers, in the case in which a retired Supreme Court judge, Mr Justice
Francis Yaonasu Kpegah, is challenging the former’s qualification as a
lawyer.
Mr Justice Kpegah filed the suit at the Fast Track Division
of the High Court on March 19, 2013 and accused Nana Akufo-Addo of
impersonation.
The plaintiff’s contention is that Nana Akufo-Addo is
holding himself as a lawyer when his name is not on the roll of lawyers
in Ghana.
By entering an appearance, Nana Akufo-Addo seeks to affirm that he has a defence to put up to clear his name.
One
of the lawyers for Nana Akufo-Addo, Mr Frank Davies, confirmed to the
Daily Graphic that he had entered appearance in court on Nana
Akufo-Addo’s behalf on March 25, 2013.
In the substantive suit, Mr
Justice Kpegah is seeking a declaration that on a true and proper
interpretation of the General Legal Council Act, Act 38 of 1960 (as
amended), unless a person is called to the Bar in Ghana and his name
entered in the Roll of Lawyers by the body mandated under the said Act
38 (as amended) to regulate the training and certification of persons
after a prescribed course of study, that person cannot be deemed
competent to practise law in any court in Ghana.
He is also seeking a
declaration that the law firm established as Akufo-Addo, Prempeh and Co
at 67 Kojo Thompson Road, Adabraka, Accra, is an illegal law firm and,
therefore, not competent to represent any party in litigation before any
court in Ghana.
The former Supreme Court judge is pleading with the
court to grant a perpetual injunction restraining Nana Akufo-Addo from
holding himself out as a lawyer competent to practise in Ghanaian courts
or anybody regarding him as such.
In a statement of claim
accompanying the writ of summons, the retired judge also accused former
President John Agyekum Kufuor of complicity when his government knew or
ought to have known that Nana Akufo-Addo was not on the roll of lawyers
but appointed him as Attorney-General and Minister of Justice who, by
the provisions of the 1992 Constitution, must be a lawyer in good
standing.
It also indicated that Nana Akufo-Addo never signed the
matriculation book at the Ghana School of Law, which was evidence of
enrolment in an institution.
According to the plaintiff, the
defendant was not known to have changed his name, neither had he been
installed anywhere in the country within the meaning of the 1992
Constitution and the Chieftaincy Act.
According to the statement, the defendant was impersonating W.A.D. Akufo-Addo, who is on the roll of lawyers as number 1190.
It
said claims by the defendant that he obtained his early education at
Government Boys’ School and later Kinbu before proceeding to the UK for
his Ordinary and Advanced Level certificates implied that he obtained
his Ordinary and Advanced certificates in the UK.
It said Nana
Akufo-Addo returned to the UK to read Law and was called to the English
Bar (Middle Temple) as Number 1190 on the roll of lawyers in Ghana.
The
statement averred that the defendant never took advantage of the
provisions of the General Legal Council Act which enabled people like Mr
R.J.A. Stanley Harvey of Grey’s Inn, who was called to the English Bar
in 1947 but was specifically called to the Ghana Bar in 1972, to enable
him to practise in Ghana.
“Former President Kufuor, who claims to
have read Law in Oxford has not been called to the Ghana Bar and,
therefore, keeps a respectful distance from the courts,” the statement
said, adding that Professor Kwamena Ahwoi, who had not been called to
the Ghana Bar, restricted himself to academia.
The statement noted
that no lawyer in Ghana worth his salt could say that if you were called
to the English Bar you could automatically practise in Ghana without
being called to the Ghana Bar.
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