{"id":465367,"date":"2018-02-18T13:41:04","date_gmt":"2018-02-18T13:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2018\/02\/18\/chief-justices-comments-on-atugubas-research-affront-to-free-speech-lawyer\/"},"modified":"2018-02-18T13:41:04","modified_gmt":"2018-02-18T13:41:04","slug":"chief-justices-comments-on-atugubas-research-affront-to-free-speech-lawyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/02\/18\/chief-justices-comments-on-atugubas-research-affront-to-free-speech-lawyer\/","title":{"rendered":"Chief Justice\u2019s comments on Atuguba\u2019s research \u2018affront to free speech\u2019 \u2013 Lawyer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"medsection1\">\n<!-- End of html generated by this->header() --><\/p>\n<p class=\"floatLeft\">General News of Sunday, 18 February 2018<\/p>\n<p class=\"floatRight\"><strong>Source: <\/strong>citifmonline.com<\/p>\n<p>2018-02-18<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-left\">\n<p class=\"article-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/54646927.295.jpg\" alt=\"Akumperigya\" title=\"Akumperigya\" width=\"295\" height=\"166\" \/><span class=\"image_caption\"><span>Rainer Akumperigya, Private legal practitioner<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"noPrint\">\n<div id=\"537626303\" style=\"width:300;height:250;margin:0;padding:0\">\n<p>\t\t  <noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" name=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" src=\"http:\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/afr?auid=537626303&amp;cb=151125817929577\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\"><a href=\"\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/rc?cs=b2ad7fa7fd&amp;cb=151125817929577\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/1518961264_107_ai\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/iframe><\/noscript><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"clear:right\">A private legal practitioner, Dr. Rainer Akumperigya has described the Chief Justice\u2019s reaction to the research findings of law lecturer, Prof. Raymond Atuguba, as an affront to free speech.<\/p>\n<p>Prof. Atuguba, after analyzing nearly 100 political cases presided over by the Supreme Court, found that in cases where the laws aren\u2019t \u201cclear\u201d, the judges usually vote in favour of the political parties that appointed them to the apex court.<\/p>\n<p>But the Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo and some Supreme Court justices did not take kindly to his research as they openly chastised him.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nSophia Akuffo, said the research was alien to Ghana\u2019s democracy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is an American type of research that you have done\u2026that\u2019s fine, but please be careful what you are importing into our environment\u2026 They [Americans] are used to that, we are not. I don\u2019t think there was a single judge who agreed with what you were saying,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Jones Dotse also said the research was an insult to judges.<\/p>\n<p>But according to Dr. Akumperigya, the comments made by the Justices and their derision of Prof Atuguba\u2019s research is an affront to free speech.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on The Big Issue on Saturday, Dr. Akumperigya said, the justices could have challenged the findings of the report without criticizing the effort to produce it.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"600\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tDzKFatu8U8\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou may have contrary views on that basis that this is not true or perhaps I didn\u2019t vote this way as your purport that I voted. Our constitution and democracy is premised on free speech and fair comment. If the professor of law faculty cannot do that even against any authority in this country then no one can. What I heard and the exchanges that took place at that forum is an affront to free speech and fair comment. It is that serious,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, a law lecturer, Professor Kwaku Asare has called on the Justices of the Supreme Court to avoid hurling criticism at Prof. Atuguba over the findings, but rather draw important values from it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRather than play political football with Atuguba\u2019s findings, let us draw the proper policy implications,\u201d he said in Facebook post.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"600\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9QlbMasx1Pw\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"600\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Fn6glJLTDZk\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!-- uploaded by: 39 updated by: -1 --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Start of html generated by this->footer() -->\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a style=\"display:none\" rel=\"follow\" href=\"http:\/\/megatheme.ir\/\" title=\"\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633\">\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>General News of Sunday, 18 February 2018 Source: citifmonline.com 2018-02-18 Rainer Akumperigya, Private legal practitioner A private legal practitioner, Dr. Rainer Akumperigya has described the Chief Justice\u2019s reaction to the research findings of law lecturer, Prof. Raymond Atuguba, as an affront to free speech. Prof. Atuguba, after analyzing nearly 100 political cases presided over by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":465368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-465367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465367\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}