Former Director of Legal Affairs of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Abraham Amaliba, has launched a scathing critique of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), accusing it of losing its relevance and acting as though it is aligned with the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Speaking in reaction to the GBA’s recent call for regulations to guide Article 146 proceedings, Mr. Amaliba argued that the Association has failed to live up to its past reputation as a strong moral voice in society.
“The GBA, I must say, has lost its relevance. The Bar was relevant during the revolution days when it spoke against the ills in our society. But with the advent of the 1992 Constitution and our current democratic dispensation, the Bar has lost its focus. For me, the bar behaves as though it is an appendage of the legal way of the NPP,” he stated in an interview on Joy FM’s Top Story.
Mr. Amaliba dismissed the GBA’s justification that its proposals were meant to bring clarity to Article 146, which outlines the procedure for removing certain public officers. According to him, the Association’s argument does not hold, since several removals have already taken place under the same constitutional provision without controversy.
“If it were about rules, Justice Terry was removed under Article 146 during Chief Justice Georgina Wood’s era, and I can mention others. If it were truly about rules, the Bar would have spoken then. They are hiding behind rules,” he said.
He further questioned which specific constitutional provisions had been breached in the recent removal of the Chief Justice, Gertrude Torkonoo, suggesting that the GBA’s intervention is unnecessary and politically tainted.
“For me, it is not about rules. Article 146 itself is a rule, so which of them has been breached by the removal of the Chief Justice? I just want to know,” he pressed.
Meanwhile, GBA has dismissed suggestions that it is acting as an appendage of the NPP in its recent call for reforms in the application of Article 146.
According to him, past cases of removal from office under Article 146, including that of former CHRAJ Commissioner Loretta Lamptey during the NDC administration and former Electoral Commission Chair Charlotte Osei under the NPP government, prove that the constitutional provision has been applied across political divides.