Akufo-Addo has adopted crudest fashion to staff state agencies – Kwakye Ofosu

Felix Kwakye Ofosu, a former deputy minister of communications, has supported former president John Mahama’s claim that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is filling the courts with judges who lean that way.

He asserts that President Akufo-Addo is purposefully populating state institutions so he can rule when he is not in office.

Speaking at the NDC Lawyers Conference in Akosombo over the weekend, Mr. Mahama charged President Akufo-Addo with selecting judges from his party in an effort to sway rulings in their favor.

The 2024 NDC presidential contender therefore urged NDC attorneys to get ready to apply for posts on the bench in order to balance its makeup.

“Our lawyers, some of you must be prepared to go onto the bench. I know that some of you have very lucrative legal practices you will not want to leave and go onto the bench. But you can see what the current President has done; he appointed the largest number of judges onto the bench. More than 80 towards hundred and counting.”

“He’s packed the courts and we know that they’ve packed the courts because they want to avoid accountability after they have left office. So, all manner of people who have been known to be partisan, to have been executives of their party who are in the legal profession have been leapfrogged onto the Superior courts and other places.”

His remarks have drawn some criticism, with the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) singling him out in particular.

Saviour Kudze, the GBA’s public relations officer, claims that Mr. Mahama’s statement is improper and unsupported by facts.

While there is nothing improper in Mr. Mahama encouraging a group of attorneys who have identified themselves as NDC attorneys to accept positions on the bench, criticizing the same judiciary, a significant institution that he hopes to oversee as President in the future, is incorrect, according to the speaker.

However, Mr. Kwakye Ofosu supported the former president’s remarks in an interview with Citi FM on Monday, September 4.

“It has been a long-standing strategy of the NPP to dominate state institutions so that they can have their way on any matter they deem fit so they go about staffing state institutions with NPP people. It started in the Kufuor era but he used more subtle means, as for President Akufo-Addo, he has adopted the crudest fashion to do this and you recall what he did with the Electoral Commission when he came into office and removed Charlotte Osei on trumped-up charges and promptly appointed someone we know to be NPP and when we thought that he was going to end there, he appointed one Appiahene who is an NPP person as a commissioner,” Mr. Kwakye Ofosu said.