MPs Dafeamekpor (NDC, South Dayi) and Francis Sosu (NDC, Madina) want legal reforms
• MPs Sosu and Dafeamekpor are set to file legal education reform Bill
• But a former Bar President Sam Okudzeto has described them as ‘jokers’
• Dafeamekpor has firmly clapped back at his senior at the bar
Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, has hit back at a senior lawyer and former president of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Sam Okudzeto, after the latter mocked him and a colleague for seeking reforms to legal education in the country.
Okudzeto on Wednesday made comments to the effect that a move initiated by Dafeamekpor and colleague lawmaker Francis-Xavier Sosu of Madina to amend the Legal Profession Act, 1960, Act 32 to bring reforms to Ghana’s legal education was a joke.
“If they (the two MPs) are lawyers, then their understanding of the law leaves a lot of question. I have been a member of the disciplinary committee for a number of years, I am still there… if I tell you the number of complaints that keep coming there…
“So, I don’t see how the qualified lawyer is going to appear before the court and you say that those for who we are going to appear before do not have any power of control over their training, or education. It’s a joke. I must confess that they are jokers and I don’t know who they are and I don’t want to know who they are,” Okudzeto told Accra-based Asaase Radio.
Responding to the comments of Okudzeto, Dafeamekpor stated that the one-time GBA president did not have a clear appreciation of the powers of Parliament in the general scheme of events.
“Clearly he lacks understanding of the workings of Parliament. Because for him to say, two members of parliament, properly so-called, taking advantage of the provisions in law, in the constitution and statutes to initiate a private members bill to him amounts to a joke, then the person who is joking in this matter is him, not the two of us.”
He continued: “If he thinks the matter is a joke, then he shouldn’t be perturbed…but clearly, he’s bothered.”
He also averred that by his very posturing on the issue and his commentary, Sam Okudzeto is engaging in professional misconduct stressing that he and Sosu will not be cowed by any threats and intimidation tactics to backtrack on their move to amend the said legislation.
What the two MPs are seeking
The two lawmakers want a redefinition of the functions of the General Legal Council and to provide for reforms in legal education such that accredited Faculties of Law with the requisite facilities would be licensed to run professional law courses, and provide for discipline of lawyers and related matters to give effect to Article 37 (1) of the Constitution.
This proposed amendment is coming at a time when some 499 First Degree holders in Law, who are reported to have passed the Ghana School of Law entrance examination, have been denied admission.
He has therefore advised the two NDC MPs not to create problems for themselves as the laws and rules have been laid out.
TWI NEWS