Law School stand-off: Minority files motion seeking to remove Attorney-General

The Minority in Parliament has filed a motion, asking the Speaker to schedule a censure vote on the Attorney General (AG) and Minister for Justice Godfred Yeboah Dame.

In a memorandum addressed to the Speaker of Parliament by Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, the NDC MPs say the AG refused to comply with Parliament’s directive in facilitating the admission of some 499 students into the Ghana School of Law.

“That This Honorable House passes a vote of censure on the Honourable Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame, in respect of the following conduct: Refusal, without justifiable basis, to implement the resolution of this Honorable House unanimously passed on October 29, that the General Legal Council admits into the Ghana School of Law 499 students who sat for and passed the entrance examination of the Ghana School of Law for the 2021/22 legal year. In accordance with its own published grounds rules, impugning the image and integrity of this Honorable House through statements unbecoming of the holder of the office of Attorney General and Minister of Justice of this Republic,” the memo read.

On October 29, 2021, the Parliament of Ghana ordered the General Legal Council (GLC) to admit all 499 Law School applicants for successfully passing the Entrance Exams.

This was a unanimous decision arrived at through a voice vote on the floor of the House on Friday, October 29, 2021.

Parliament also directed the Attorney-General to ensure this resolution was adhered to by the GLC.

However, in a letter dated November 1, 2021, and signed by the Attorney General, Mr. Godfred Dame, he advised Parliament, saying that the House cannot direct the GLC by resolution on its admission processes.

“Whilst recognising the general legislative powers of Parliament in Ghana, except as have been circumscribed by the Constitution, I am constrained to advise that Parliament is devoid of power through the use of Parliamentary resolutions, to control the process of admission into the Ghana School of Law,” parts of the letter read.

“The mode of exercising legislative power enshrined in article 106 of the Constitution does not admit of the resolution,” the AG’s letter added.

Article 82 of Ghana’s 1992 constitution states the processes by which a vote of censure can be passed on a Minister of State.

It states that;

1. Parliament may, by are solution supported by the votes of not less than
   two-thirds of all the members of Parliament, pass a vote of censure on a Minister
   of State.
2. A motion for the resolution referred to in clause (1) of this article shall not be
   moved in Parliament unlessa. seven days’ notice has been given of the motion; and
   b. the notice for the motion has been signed by not less than one-third of all
   the members of Parliament;
3. The motion shall be debated in Parliament within fourteen days after the receipt
   by the Speaker of the notice for the motion.
4. A Minister of State in respect of whom a vote of censure is debated under clause
   (3) of this article is entitled, during the debate, to be heard in his defence.
5. Where a vote of censure is passed against a Minister under this article the
   President may, unless the Minister resigns his office, revoke his appointment as
   a Minister.
6. For the avoidance of doubt this article applies to a Deputy Minister as it applies
   to a Minister of State