Dr. Ayine has said that he stand by the opinion he expressed which has lead to the Chief Justice petitioning against him at the General Legal Council.
According to the former Deputy Attorney General, the comments he made did not offend the independence of the Judiciary neither did it cause any actual or potential harm to the reputation of the individual justices.
“With all due respect to His Lordship, the Chief Justice, I wish to state that I stand by the opinion I expressed at the said roundtable discussion. I am firmly convinced that the opinion I expressed neither imperiled the independence of the judiciary nor did it cause any actual or potential harm to the reputation of the individual justices nor did it cause any actual or potential harm to the reputation of the individual justices who sat on the case,” Ayine said in an 11-page response to the petition before the General Legal Council.
He made this comment in response to a petition filed by the Chief Justice, Kwasi Anin-Yeboah to the General Legal Council (GLC) of Ghana asking that Dr Ayine be investigated.
In a letter addressed to the Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council, the Chief Justice accused Dr. Ayine of stating that “the Supreme Court’s failure to apply the rules of procedures as well as the consistent and continuous dismissal of the petitioners’ applications or reliefs were the basis of his assertion.
But according to Dr. Ayine his comment at the said event was in his right as a Ghanaian to freely express himself.
“On the contrary, I was engaged in constructive criticism based on my reading of the unanimous judgment of the Supreme Court in exercise of my constitutionally protected right to freedom of speech. I did so in good faith, without malice or falsehood or recklessness and in furtherance of my responsibility to our country as a lawyer and an academic.”