Going! Going…!! Jubilee House Starts Process To Remove Chief Justice

-For Alleged US$ 5 million Bribery Scandal

The Jubilee House has commenced processes that could ultimately lead to the removal of Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah for his alleged involvement in a US$ 5 million bribery scandal to undertake a “ways and means legal gymnastics” to twist a pending court case.

A letter dated July 26, 2021, and signed by Nana Asante Bediatuo, the Executive Secretary to President Akufo Addo confirmed that a process.

“…The President of the Republic has, in accordance with Article 146 (6) OF THE Constitution, commenced the appropriate process subsequent to being petitioned for the removal of the Chief Justice,” Asante Bediatuo wrote.

He was responding to an “undated” petition sent to the Presidency by the governance advocacy group, Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA).

Critics are hopeful that the facts around the bribery scandal against the Chief Justice would emerge. They are however no certainty that the Akufo Addo administration will have the political fortitude to remove the Chief Justice if found culpable.

This is because, the Presidency has already sat on a previous petition calling for the removal of the Electoral Commissioner, Jean Adukwe Mensa for alleged procurement breaches and possible corruption at the election management body.

The multi-million bribery allegation levelled against Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah took a new turn when reports emerged that he had allegedly acquired some plush properties after the bribe. 

The multi-million-dollar houses are located at Cantonments, Labone and Asokwa in Accra and Kumasi respectively.

These damning revelations are being made by the US-based Ghanaian investigative journalist, Kevin Ekow Taylor who claims that one of the properties of the embattled Chief Justice is located in Kumasi on Plot 8 Block F, New Amokom Extension in Asokwa-Kumasi 

 “The documents are here. We know these houses belong to the Chief Justice. Nobody can twist anything. These houses were purchased when he became Chief Justice,” Kevin Taylor threatened to release details of the paper trail linking the Chief Justice to alleged money laundering.

Insiders say before Justice Anin Yeboah was appointed by President Akufo Addo as Ghana’s Chief Justice, he did not have any house and had lived in government bungalows throughout his career.

The bribery scandal against Justice Anin Yeboah broke a few weeks ago when Kwasi Afrifa, a lawyer from the O&A Legal Consult who has been accused of professional misconduct had claimed that his client, one Chief Oyeedom Obrani Kwesi Atta VI had bribed the Chief Justice with a staggering US$ 5 million.

On March 1, 2021, Chief Kwesi Atta VI petitioned the General Legal Council (GLC), accusing Afrifa of squandering some US$100,000 he paid him to undertake “ways and means gymnastics” at the Supreme Court to obtain a favourable judgment in his suit number J8/96/2020.

The chief is in long-drawn litigation against Ghana Telecom Company Limited, now Vodafone Ghana for some US$ 16 million in claims.

However, Afrifa in response made a startling revelation about the genesis of his misunderstanding with the chief.

According to Afrifa, Chief Kwesi Atta IV’s accusations were designed to hide a more serious issue involving how he was kicked off the case and replaced with Lawyer Akoto Ampaw, President Akufo Addo’s lead lawyer in the 2021 presidential election petition.

In his counter-petition to the Secretary to the GLC, Mr. Afrifa wrote that he had been engaged as a lawyer for Chief Kwesi Atta VI in the Ghana Telecom litigation but he was replaced by Akoto Ampaw after a misunderstanding between him and his client.

According to him, his client had confidentially informed him that Chief Justice Anin Yeboah had demanded an incredible US$ 5 million for the case to be swung in his favour to get his US$ 16 million pay-out.

“He further informed me that the Chief Justice had demanded a bribe of USD 5,000,000.00for a successful outcome to his case and that he had already paid USD500, 000.00 to the Chief Justice. He further informed me that he was hard-pressed to raise the remainder of the USD5, 000,000.00 and so I should refund some of the GHC 300,000.00 paid to me as fees because he had in line with the advice of the Chief Justice, engaged Akoto Ampaw Esq as Solicitor to continue the case before the Supreme Court,” Afrifa said in a damning revelation.

He continued: “Indeed, he told me that his own investigations which he caused the BNI to conduct shows that the Chief Justice was in the process of acquiring several properties at a posh residential area in Kumasi and therefore needed the money urgently. I told him I was simply not interested in his dealings with politicians and persons wielding power.”

The Chief Justice had denied the allegation and had ordered the General Legal Council which he chairs to probe the allegation. He also wrote a letter to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to investigate the allegation.

But skeptics have asked him to step down from his position so as not to influence the investigation because the two institutions he wants to probe the allegations are virtually under his purview.