A Supreme Court Justice nominee, Henry Anthony Kwofie, has said most of the corruption allegations that are made against judges are baseless.
He observed that people go to court with cases and misconduct themselves and after losing their cases, they decide to make all sorts of unsubstantiated accusations against the judge.
Mr Kwofie indicated that although some judges misconduct themselves in office, their misbehavior should not be used to paint a general picture of how all judges carry themselves.
He said this while answering questions during his vetting by the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Wednesday, December 20.
Answering questions on corruption perception among judges, asked by Bawku Central lawmaker Mahama Ayariga, he said “Perception is a mind issue, there is a lot of talk about it, with perceptions they are difficult to deal with. There have been several seminars by the judiciary on corruption and ethics, we have ethics, and we train judges on issues of ethics, corruption, and proper behavior almost every year, we do it.
“The perception, most of them are actually unfounded. Somebody goes to court and loses a case and then all of a sudden there is corruption, somebody misconducts himself and there is corruption,” he said.
“Some judges misconduct themselves, I don’t deny that fact, but it should not be used as an indicator to say judges are bad therefore there is corruption,” he stressed
Asked again about what the judiciary should do to communicate to the public on corruption allegations made against judges, he answered again “Probably we need to look at our Communication Department. We need a very strong Communication or Public Relations Department to speak for us.”
Asked by Ayawaso Central Lawmaker Henry Quartey as to what he will do if cases involving his friends are brought before him, he said will recuse himself.
“I will recuse myself,” he said.
He added, “I think that is what most judges do, when we do that those ones are not published because they are not news.”