Freddie Blay, a former national chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has responded to claims by former president John Dramani Mahama that the current government is appointing judges who are loyal to the NPP.
His argument is that Mahama has no moral standing to make these claims because his party has historically appointed judges.
John Dramani Mahama, the former president and presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), had previously accused President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of stacking the courts with friends and family members.
“Currently, the judiciary is packed with NPP-inclined judges because this government has carried out a deliberate policy of putting their people onto the bench… He (Akufo-Addo) has appointed the biggest number of judges onto the bench; it is more than 80, towards 100, and counting. You can see what the current president has done,” Mahama said.
After making this assertion, Mahama went on to say that he would pick judges sympathetic to the NDC in order to counteract the president’s actions if he were to come to power in 2024.
Freddie Blay responded by saying that there are examples of former National Democratic Congress (NDC) members working in the judicial system, therefore, the ex-president has no moral justification for his claims.
“You mentioned that I have been around for a while. I was in parliament when somebody who was a member of parliament for the NDC after he was butchered out of parliament applied and he joined the judiciary; he is still a member of the NDC,” he said.
The ex-national chairman further suggested that this practice is not unique to the NPP.
“There is a Dormaa high court judge; solidly, he speaks for the NDC. His opinions are obvious, and he speaks for the NDC. All his utterances indicate that he supports the NDC. That is not all; I knew a man who is now in retirement. He was also an MP during my time; he was also recruited onto the bench; and he was an NDC. I don’t want to mention names here,” he added.
