1992 Constitution is bad, we need a new one – Kpebu

Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu says that the 1992 Constitution is not a good document.

To that end, he said Ghana needs and entire new constitution. not a review of the existing one.

He argues that the way and manner the current document has even structured the presidency is not good. Too much powers have been given to the president, he said.

“We need to restructure the presidency, this constitution is not a good one,” Kpebu said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, July 13 while discussing the request by Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo for five more justices of the Supreme Court to be appointed to make it twenty.

For his part, the Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) Saviour Kudzoe has said that a broad-based consultation is needed on the appointment of justices of the Supreme Court.

He says that the appointing authorities will have to go a step ahead of the conventional ways of appointing the justices to engage Parliament and the Council of State on such appointments.

Speaking on the Key Points on TV3 on Saturday, July 13, he says the apex court is now overwhelmed with cases because a lot more people have become aware of their rights under the laws and hence will always resort to the court to address their grievances.

“A lot more people have become aware of their rights so a lot of cases go to court, not just the Supreme Court. People are inclined to go to the Supreme Court when they are dissatisfied so we were not surprised that we had this number of cases pending there. if that is the position then there will be the need to increase the number. There should be broad-based engagement by involving parliament and the council of state,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, July 13.

Supreme Court must be allowed to go through reformation through expansion in terms of numbers – Afenyo-Markin

On this same, the Attorney-General Godfred Dame said that the substantial increase in the backlog of 414 and 595 cases in the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 legal years, during which there were the fewest number of Justices of the Supreme Court for the five-year period under review, provided empirical justification for the need to expand the number of Justices at the Supreme Court to curb the rising backlog of cases.

Godfred Dame says that appointing more justices of the apex court is not only constitutional but would ensure speedy and effective justice, minimise delays and unnecessary expense and conduce to the general efficient administration of the Supreme Court.

“Given the breadth of the multiplicity of jurisdictions of the Supreme Court, the request for the increase in the number of justices serving on the Supreme Court from the conventional fifteen (in addition to the Chief Justice) to twenty, is not only constitutional but would ensure speedy and effective justice, minimise delays and unnecessary expense and conduce to the general efficient administration of the Supreme Court,” he said in a statement.

He added “Understandably, the permutations in the constitution of the panels, almost simultaneously, could be daunting for effective and efficient work in the face of the limited number of Justices at the Supreme Court, as the Court is incessantly inundated with cases.”

“The enhancement of the membership of the Supreme Court to twenty, as requested in the brief by Her Ladyship the Chief Justice, is appropriate,” he further stated..

Read his full statement here 

 

 

 

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