AG ordering CJ chaired GLC to admit 499 law students interesting
“Until that is done, the current situation, what led to it, is now public knowledge.
A former Deputy Attorney General, Joseph Dindiok Kpemka has described as interesting, the situation where an Attorney General, who is an ordinary member of the General Legal Council issues an order or directive to the Council, chaired by the Chief Justice.
He however admitted that the law empowers the AG to from time to time, issue instructions to the General Legal Council.
“I have been privileged to have served on the General Legal Council before as a member for about three years as Deputy Attorney General and the nominee of the Attorney General but there is something that is missing in all the conversation that is going on,” he noted.
“I articulated it on one platform about a few weeks ago. There is a very interesting one. The law empowers the AG to from time to time, instruct the General Legal Council in a certain manner but that is the interesting bit. Let me tell you why it is an interesting bit. The Attorney-general, who is mandated by law to sometimes give instructions to the GLC is an ordinary member of the GLC which is presided over by the Chief Justice and two other Justices of the Supreme Court. The Attorney General being an ordinary member of the GLC is instructing certain persons including the chair to act in a certain manner. This is problematic,” he added.
Speaking on ‘the big issues on Citi tv’, Mr Kpemka further suggested an overhaul of legal education in Ghana to deal with the yearly admission issues thus ascribed to the suggestion of allowing the Law Faculties to run the professional law programmes and making the General Legal Council will be a regulatory body.
Furthermore, he called for a clear guideline and guidance relative to the rules and pass marks of the Ghana School of Law Entrance examination to avoid complain on the part of students who are unable to pass the exams.
“Until that is done, the current situation, what led to it, is now public knowledge. The publication in the Daily Graphic did not state that for you to get 50% which was the pass mark, you needed to get 25 in each section to qualify you thus if you got 49 and 3 in another, you will get 52 but you don’t qualify. I have said that as an esteemed professional of that class, you ought to let the students know whatever rules and regulations are governing the exams before they go in so that once you make them aware, and they are caught by the rules, no one will be able to complain,” he indicated.
