Martin Amidu accused Judge Samuel Bright Acquah of turning Ghana’s Constitution into George Orwell’s Animal Farm, where some citizens are treated as “more equal than others.”
Citing sections of the judge’s ruling, Amidu argued that Judge Acquah assumed authoritarian powers by using bail as punishment.
“Samuel Bright Acquah sought by his ruling to reduce the 1992 Constitution to the level of a dictatorship and authoritarian judicial autocracy in which a circuit court judge assumes the power to control the liberties of the citizen in a manner inconsistent with the Constitution and the due process of law,” Amidu wrote.
He further ridiculed the judge’s literary references, noting that Judge Acquah misapplied Orwell’s text.
“How can the legal profession and the Judicial Service of Ghana have someone on the bench passing for a circuit court judge who refers to books he has pertinently not read as authority for refusing bail?”
To Amidu, such rulings echo Orwell’s warning: “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.” He warned that Ghana must not descend into such a state.
Background
It would be recalled that the Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe, popularly known as Abronye DC, was remanded after a Circuit Court in Accra denied him bail in a case that has quickly drawn public attention.
Presiding Judge Samuel Bright Acquah explained his decision in open court, stressing that the matter goes beyond the surface charges against the politician.
“Accused person before the court is facing two (2) charges of misdemeanours.
However, in this instant case, the court will not look at only the charges being misdemeanour but will extend it to the position of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to the country that is the head of the police service,” the judge remarked.
He argued that the comments allegedly made by Abronye DC could undermine confidence in national security, warning that such utterances could have wider implications for stability.
“The words which came from the accused person is likely to put the security of the nation into disrepute,” he stated.
In an unusual but striking literary reference, Judge Acquah drew from George Orwell’s famous novel Animal Farm to emphasize his point.
