The Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Kumasi Diocese, Most Rev Peter Kwasi Sarpong, says a judge who takes bribe to deny an innocent person his right to a just judgment is culpable of blasphemous treachery.
According to him, such a judge declares by his action that he is not a human being but a traitor of the nation, intimating that a nation whose judiciary is corrupt is good as dead.
Speaking at the sixth graduation ceremony of the Spiritan University College at Ejisu, Archbishop Sarpong said recent events concerning the behaviour of some judges and magistrates had not only shaken the whole nation, but had also affected confidence in the judiciary.
“It is really tragic that at least one of the accused judges is alleged to have assured a looter of the nation’s goods, who should have been imprisoned years ago, that he would find a technical way to acquit him,” the man of God noted.
According to him, it is ironic that one of the implicated judges allegedly attempted to use the same court system he and his colleagues “perverted and desecrated for their selfish gains to impose interlocutory injunction” to prevent Anas Aremeyaw Anas from premiering the scandalous video tape at the Accra International Conference Centre on September 22, 2015.
Archbishop Sarpong intimated that the said judge, per his action, had wanted to cover the truth with technicalities.
He argued that a judge who takes bribe such as a goat to deny justice to the innocent equates a human being to a goat.
The Catholic Archbishop questioned the usefulness of education to the nation if judges receiving huge salaries and enjoying innumerable allowances and benefits would succumb to so low a level of professional misbehaviour.
“What the adjudicators are alleged to have done raises the question of the usefulness of education to the nation. It corroborates the well-known principle of good education: that to educate a person without God is to educate the devil himself,” he posited.
According to him, the implicated judges may be very erudite but their alleged crime is diametrically opposed to what Commodius once said: that “Education should lead to cultivation of virtues.”
Archbishop Sarpong said this is the reason the Catholic Church establishes universities to help inculcate virtues in the citizenry, noting that the Spiritan University College is meant to produce people of character who are able to place the good of the nation before their own interest.
73 Graduate
In all, 73 students graduated from the university college in various disciplines including Accounting, Banking and Finance, Human Resource Management, Economics and Sociology, and Philosophy.
Rector of the College, Rev Fr Anthony Anomah, C.S.Sp, implored the graduands to be bold, innovative and daring in their pursuits.
According to him, products of the Spiritan University College are expected to break ground by creating their own employment.
“Remember that the education you have received has prepared you for life to be an asset to yourself, society and God. Our society is facing political, economic, social and moral challenges. I urge you to bring your education to bear on our nation’s development,” Rev Anomah advised.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Ejisu