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Emmanuel Bombande, Senior Adviser on Mediation at the United Nations, congratulated the presidency for setting up an investigating commission to examine the bullet incident that tainted Thursday's by-election at Ayawaso West Wuogon.
The former deputy foreign minister called the establishment of the commission "not decisive and daring", persuaded that the people chosen to constitute the body of inquiry will apply their integrity and their experience at their job.
Judge Edem Srem Sai, a professor of law at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and a private lawyer, shares Mr. Bombande's view. However, he is concerned about the constitutional powers of the commission.
"When I saw the inquiry commission and the individuals, I was happy, but when I look at the investigation board itself, as defined by the Constitution, I am "Worried," Judge Sai told PM Express on Wednesday night.
"The first problem" he points "is that any recommendation made by the commission is subject to the discretion of the president – either to accept them, to accept them, to reject them all or to accept or reject certain".
"At the end of the day, we have to go back to political discretion," he said.
The presidency announced Wednesday that the commission would be chaired by the former commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Francis Emile Short.
Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, a well-known law professor, and Patrick Kwarteng Acheampong, former Inspector General of Police, will badist Mr. Short, while Dr. Ernest Kofi Abotsi, lawyer and former dean of GIMPA Law School, will be secretary Commission.
The mandate of the Commission, according to a presidential statement, is as follows.
(a) to conduct an exhaustive, faithful and impartial investigation into the circumstances and facts at the origin of the events and the badociated violence that occurred during the partial election of Ayawaso West Wuogon, January 31, 2019;
(b) identify any person responsible or involved in the events, violence and related injuries;
(c) investigate any matter that the Board considers to be accidental or reasonably related to the causes of the events and the resulting violence and trauma; and
d) submit its report to the President within one month, indicating the reasons for its conclusions and recommendations, including the appropriate sanctions, if any.
Problems
Judge Sai understood the right that persons brought to the Commission to testify can not be prosecuted.
For the investigation commissions, he said, the case law is to look at the problems and to try to solve them in a more elaborate way in order to select people and prosecute them.
"Then the question is whether you invite someone as a witness and that he explains how to use his testimony to prosecute him later." If a witness of an investigative commission was prosecuted on the basis of his testimony, this would offend the idea of justice, "Judge Sai said.
He added that "if you look at the second mandate of the Commission … it is obvious that the persons responsible or liable to be liable are probably persons who, without the Commission, could have been prosecuted. "
In the end, he added, this will mean that people who can be identified in accordance with the second mandate of the Emile Short Commission will no longer be punished.
useless
Already another private lawyer, John Ndebugri, stated that the Commission was useless.
It considers the government's approach as a waste of time, especially when the perpetrators of the acts are known, can be easily identified and treated without resorting to an investigative commission.
"Those who have committed the act are known, they should be apprehended, brought to justice, prosecuted in a court of competent jurisdiction and prosecuted in a court of competent jurisdiction. So, I do not see the interest of a commission of inquiry. It's a way of solving problems under the carpet, "Ndebugri said on the occasion of Top Story, Wednesday.
Watch the full PM Express in the video below.
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