{"id":1203312,"date":"2022-09-13T10:56:40","date_gmt":"2022-09-13T10:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/09\/13\/you-cant-take-my-right-to-speak-from-me-mahama-tells-dame\/"},"modified":"2022-09-13T10:56:40","modified_gmt":"2022-09-13T10:56:40","slug":"you-cant-take-my-right-to-speak-from-me-mahama-tells-dame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/09\/13\/you-cant-take-my-right-to-speak-from-me-mahama-tells-dame\/","title":{"rendered":"You can\u2019t take my right to speak from me – Mahama tells Dame"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Former President John Mahama has responded to Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame\u2019s criticism of his comment about the judiciary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 2020 NDC flagbearer said he will not allow anyone to take his right to speak on issues of national from him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to him, as a former President, he is duty bound to comment on such matters to give them the needed attention.<\/p>\n

\"You
John Dramani Mahama<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Speaking in an interview with TV3 on Monday, September 12, he said he is unfazed by attacks from people who are unhappy with his criticisms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Judiciary is the last arbiter. We can disagree, and we can have quarrels in Parliament eventually when we are unable to agree, we all go to the justice system and we must have confidence that it will do fairly and will do so according to the law and in the public interest that\u2019s all I was saying.<\/p>\n

\"You
Former President John Dramani Mahama<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSo how he can interpret that to mean that I was imprudent and bla bla bla. So if you are a former president and you see something going on in the country you have no right to talk about it? Is that what he is saying?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I won\u2019t let him take that right away from me. If I see something going wrong, I will point it out. It is my duty to do so,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice on Monday, September, 12 responded to former President John Mahama\u2019s critique of the Judiciary.<\/p>\n

Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame said the former President has developed the habit of criticising the Judiciary unnecessarily.<\/p>\n

\"You
Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He thus described Mr Mahama\u2019s attitude as deplorable and unbecoming of a former Head of State.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am compelled to comment on the same in this address because they border on the security of the state and constitute a deliberate pattern of conduct aimed at undermining the independence of the Judiciary, an arm of government whose autonomy is crucial to its proper functioning.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch conduct is clearly deplorable, coming from one who has occupied the highest office of President and aspires again to that office.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this moment, it is important for all to note that I express this sentiment not because I stand in opposition to former President Mahama as a politician.<\/p>\n

\"You
Godfred Yeboah Dame<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMy dismay is founded more on the fact that I am a lawyer and every lawyer ought to be concerned about these kinds of views expressed by a political leader in this country!,\u201d he said at Ghana Bar Association\u2019s Annual Conference on Monday.<\/p>\n

Mahama\u2019s criticism<\/strong><\/p>\n

The former President, speaking at the NDC\u2019s Lawyers\u2019 Conference on Sunday, August 28, said it will take a new Chief Justice to repair the \u201cbroken image\u201d of the Judiciary.<\/p>\n

According to him, the current leadership of the Judiciary lacks what it takes to redeem its sunken image, hence the need for a new Chief Justice.<\/p>\n

Mr Mahama explained that a perceived independent Judiciary is a vital element in safeguarding the country\u2019s democracy.<\/p>\n

The NDC\u2019s 2020 Presidential Candidate however noted that the current Judiciary has become an item of ridicule and mistrust, and therefore the need for a new Chief Justice to restore public confidence in the courts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former President John Mahama has responded to Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame\u2019s criticism of his comment about the judiciary.\u00a0 The 2020 NDC flagbearer said he will not allow anyone to take his right to speak on issues of national from him.\u00a0 According to him, as a former President, he is duty bound to comment on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1194136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1203312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1203312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1203312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1203312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1203312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1203312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1203312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}