Judges Need Boduguards

A top Kumasi-based lawyer has proposed that lower court judges and magistrates in the country should be provided with their own police bodyguards.

Lawyer Francis Koffie, President of the Ashanti Regional branch of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), said it is not good for lower court judges and magistrates to walk without police protection.

According to him, currently police protection is only given to judges at the high courts and beyond.

He opined that lower court judges and magistrates could not discharge their duties efficiently because they didn’t have protection at home and at work.

He argued that if a judge, who sentences people into prison, is without a police protection, definitely he/she may become afraid for his/her life, and that may affect justice delivery.

Lawyer Koffie was speaking when the Ashanti regional branch of the GBA paid a courtesy call on the Ashanti Regional Police Commander, DCOP Kwasi Duku, to welcome him to the region.

He stated that there is the need for the regional GBA and the police command to continue to work together to promote the justice delivery system in the region.

DCOP Duku, who was posted to the region some weeks ago, stated that his administration was determined to working to help boost the relationship between the GBA and the command, and assured that the police would contribute their quota, to help boost law and order and in the region.

By: Kwadwo Essel