National Patriots against Injustice and Corruption Ghana (NAPAIC-Ghana) a well-recognized Civil Society Organization in the Upper East Region, has advised the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) to not focus on frivolities and not dissipate its energy on trivialities but rather pay attention to concrete issues that are worth public attention.
NAPAIC free advice to the RCC came a day after the RCC issued a rejoinder statement demanding a retraction from Ghanaweb and its correspondent over a publication they claimed is a security threat.
According to NAPAIC, the RCC statement seeks to debunk a story that highlights how a High Court judge, His Lordship Justice Alexander Graham, fled the Upper East Region on March 16, 2023, as a result of a violent attack at his residence on March 15, 2023, by some unknown persons.
However, NAPAIC in their press conference on Tuesday, April 4, 2023, used the medium to ask some interesting questions to the Regional Coordinating Council.
Kindly read the full statement below:
NAPAIC-GHANA
National Patriots against Injustice and Corruption Ghana
Email Address: napaicgh2014@gmail.com Date: 4th April, 2023.
PRESS STATEMENT
Ladies and gentlemen, we wish to welcome you to today’s edition of our news conference. We the members of the National Patriots against Injustice and Corruption Ghana (NAPAIC-Ghana) wish to thank you for honouring our invitation and for your presence.
Our attention has been drawn to an eight-paragraph letter (a rejoinder) written by the Upper East Regional Minister, Hon. Stephen Yakubu, and signed by Alhaji Abubakari Inusah who is a Coordinating Director at the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council. The letter seeks to debunk a story that highlights how a High Court judge, His Lordship Justice Alexander Graham, fled the Upper East Region on March 16, 2023, as a result of a violent attack on his residence on March 15, 2023, by some unknown persons.
In our opinion, the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council should have briefed the good people of the Upper East Region with security-related updates on the judicial front in the matter of His Lordship Justice Alexander Graham. We need answers from the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council/ Regional Security Council to the following questions:
First, what was the state of intelligence gathered by the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council/Regional Security Council before the attack on the judge?
Can the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council/Regional Security Council confirm as to whether or not that the judge has no police escort?
Is the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council/Regional Security Council able to tell us where the judge currently is?
Since the sudden exit of the judge from the region in the wake of the attack on his residence, there has been no sitting at the High Court ‘2’ in Bolgatanga. The absence of the High Court judge is a serious security threat going by the maxim that justice delayed is justice denied. When justice is denied, litigants who are not getting justice as required owing to the absence of the judge are most likely to take the law into their own hands, thereby creating anarchy or lawlessness. It is the responsibility of the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council/Regional Security Council to ensure and to guarantee the protection of judicial service staff including judges. The question we ask is: what has the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council/Regional Security Council done as to how they have protected Justice Alexander Graham so far and how other judicial service staff are being protected?
The Upper East Regional Coordinating Council/Regional Security Council should rather focus on ensuring and improving the security of judicial service staff in the region than running a banter with credible media houses like Ghanaweb over a harmless publication and seeking a baseless retraction and an unmerited apology. For example, a bungalow once occupied by Deputy Upper East Regional Ministers in Bolgatanga has been empty for a very long time. It is safer to accommodate Justice Graham inside that bungalow (since it is fenced and it is within a security zone) than the apartment where the violent attack took place.
But we find it so appalling that the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council/Regional Security Council has not taken this security idea into consideration for the safety of the judge but it is rather shamefully focusing its energy on writing and issuing a frivolous rejoinder to a media house (Ghanaweb) that is doing its job in a very professional manner.
We find it absurd and strange for the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council to base a rejoinder on a news publication headlined “Talensi: Gold Baron taken to court over alleged plot to harm philanthropist” only to shift the rejoinder to what has nothing to do with what the main story is all about. In our opinion, this so-called rejoinder from the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council is nothing but a smokescreen aimed at expressing a hidden displeasure of the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council about a story that has exposed an alleged plot to attack a philanthropist Hon. Zongdan Boyak Kolog. Perhaps, the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council wished the story about the alleged plot to attack the philanthropist was never published for some selfish reasons. That is our opinion.
If some elements within the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council are feeling uncomfortable because certain stories which must be told are being told with facts to the public, such elements need to be reminded that “he who brings a sugarcane to the house should not be surprised when flies suddenly begin to pay him unexpected visits.”
We would like to conclude by advising the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council to not focus on frivolities and not dissipate its energy on trivialities but rather pay attention to concrete issues that are worth public attention.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
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Zumah Tii-roug (NAPAIC-Ghana member and recorder) (0244242748)
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Akobulgo Zotipeliba Ayeo
Vice-President, NAPAIC-Ghana.
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