Ofoase Ayiribi Member of Parliament (MP) says the bribery allegation against a Supreme Court judge by Asawase MP, Muntaka Mubarak, is a deliberate attempt to drag the integrity of the Apex Court into disrepute.
Kojo Oppong Nkrumah believes the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is fighting a lost cause with its 2020 flagbearer’s election petition before the Supreme Court.
The Caretaker Information Minister said the party has no case to start with.
He, therefore, said party leadership of the NDC is resorting to various allegations to poison the minds of the public against the judges ahead of the hearing of the case.
“The NDC is on a path to smear and undermine the integrity of the Supreme Court and its justices and they are doing that because they are clear in their minds that this petition before the court is a lost one.
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“The first evidence you notice is Muntaka Mohammed Mubarak who goes to national television and alleges that a Supreme Court judge has been involved in calling two NDC MPs-elect and trying to convince same to vote for Speaker Mike Oquaye during the election of the Speaker.
“The real object of that allegation is to begin to poison the world ahead of this litigation,” he said.
The comment comes as a response to a member of John Mahama’s legal team, Dr Abdul Baasit Bamba, who has described the seven-member panel to hear the 2020 election petition, as unfair and unbalanced.
Dr Bamba on the AM Show, Friday, insisted that senior judges were not made part of the panel but rather judges who were mainly appointed by New Patriotic Party (NPP) governments.
Mr Mubarak, who is also the Chief Whip of the NDC Caucus in Parliament, on JoyNews’ The Probe alleged that a Supreme Court judge tried to influence the outcome of the Speakership elections for the 8th Parliament.
The Asawase MP stated that a very prominent judge contacted an NDC MP and offered an inducement should the person vote in favour of the NPP Speaker nominee.
Subsequently, Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah in response has assured the general public of a probe into the allegation.
Mr Muntaka has also assured he will assist the apex court with evidence.
Reacting to the comments, the former Information Minister, who is also a spokesperson for President Akufo-Addo’s team, has cautioned the NDC to desist from deliberately making unfounded allegations to mar the reputation of the Supreme Court judges, as such claims, he said are a dent on the country’s democracy.
“I think that if you are serious about building a democracy and building institutions, we ought to be the last persons to undermine the democracy and the institutions of that democracy,” he added.