Former President and flagbearer of the NDC, John Mahama, has once again taken on the Ghana Bar Association over its selective defence of people’s rights that are abused under the current NPP administration.
Speaking at a town hall meeting with labour unions at the Great Hall of the KNUST in Kumasi, John Mahama cast doubts on the professional integrity of the Bar Association in defending the rights of oppressed Ghanaians.
‘’When journalists are oppressed, when people’s freedom of expression is affected, it is the duty of organised labour and unions to speak out, GBA spoke about perception, does GBA go to sleep when NPP is in power and wakes up when NDC comes? We will see in 2025 whether you will wake up,” he said.
He intimated that the perception that the Bar is biased towards the NDC administration is true.
“You know yourselves that when NPP is in power, they do the most outrageous things and you are quiet, and yet when NDC is in power, the least mistake and GBA has issued a press release, you know it’s true,” Mr Mahama pointed out.
John Mahama in 2023, addressing the closing ceremony of the 3rd Annual Lawyers Conference of the NDC claimed that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had deliberately appointed the most judges to the bench in order to have people who will do his bidding when he is out of office and called on NDC members to “balance out” the bench.
The NDC flagbearer had alleged that currently, the judiciary is packed with NPP-inclined judges because this government has carried out a deliberate policy of putting their people onto the bench.
The GBA in a swift response took the former President on over his comments, asking why he would condemn what he describes as a wrong act and then in the same breath propose to entrench the same.
John Mahama is urging them to stay truthful to the cause of defending human rights.
‘’The truth is the same under Rawlings, same under Kuffour, same under Mills, same under Mahama and Akufo Addo, it does not change,’’ the former President stressed.
He further said, “if you are concerned about people’s rights, if you are concerned with protecting human rights and freedoms, you must be consistent under any administration, not only be concerned under some administration and not under other administrations”.