“I did nothing wrong,” – Dr. Ayine tells GLC after CJ summons
The 11-paged response addressed to the Administrative Secretary of the GLC details three reasons advanced by Dr. Ayine for which the “committee should not proceed to hold an inquiry”.
Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga East, and former Attorney General, Dr. Dominic Ayine has told the General Legal Council that he “stands by the opinion he expressed at the … roundtable discussion” for which he was summoned to the General Legal Council by the Chief Justice.
In a letter dated June 14, 2021, which has been sighted by Dennislaw News, Dr. Ayine has emphasized that the comments were “expressions of [his] personal opinion on the unreported judgment of the Supreme Court in John Dramani Mahama v. Electoral Commission & Anor. Writ No. J1/05/2021 (4th March 2021).
The 11-paged response addressed to the Administrative Secretary of the GLC details three reasons advanced by Dr. Ayine for which the “committee should not proceed to hold an inquiry”.
He argues that “my contribution at the roundtable discussion was not intended to disparage the Judiciary and did not, in fact, disparage the Judiciary”; “criticism of Judicial decision after the fact does not constitute professional misconduct” and; “my observation about the conduct of the 2020 Election Petition Proceedings constitute protected speech within the ambit of Article 21 of the Constitution.”
According to him, the Judiciary is another of several public services in Ghana which may be criticized like any other public service is criticized. He added that his presence at the discussion was not “in the business of providing legal services on the platform” offered by the CDD. Thus, the criticism he offered was consistent with such as are “permissible in a democratic society governed by the law [and] is the kind that lawyers have a professional duty to undertake by reason of their training.”
Also, he emphasized that becoming a lawyer did not take away his “basic constitutional right to freedom of speech and of expression.”
“Finally, our progressive march as a constitutional democracy would suffer a grave and decidedly irreversible setback if the Committee were to proceed to hold an inquiry into this matter. Our constitution and laws protect the integrity and independence of the Judiciary and not the sensibilities of judges,” Dr. Ayine concludes.
Background
The Chief Justice petitioned the General Legal Council to investigate the MP for Bolgatanga East, Dr. Dominic Ayine over some statements he made at a roundtable discussion organized by the civil society group, CDD-Ghana.
The said statements were in response to a question posed by the moderator of the roundtable discussion, which sought to find out from the participants whether the “conduct of the election petition proceedings before the Ghanaian Supreme Court enhanced [their] confidence in the independence of the Judiciary in Ghana.”
Dr. Ayine is reported to have responded in the negative, an action which however displeased the Chief Justice, hence the petition to the General Legal Council.
The petition has however been variously received by the public with the Minority in Parliament calling it an attack on free speech.
Other lawyers have expressed dissent with the move by the Chief Justice and called for a reconsideration of the decision to haul the legislator to the GLC.
