Nana Addo is not the first person to appoint Muslim Supreme Court Judge – Lawyer Edudzi Tamakloe corrects public impression

“I saw as usual, the NPP social media guys sharing a video of Mr Akufo Addo during the swearing in of the new Justices of the Supreme Court.

When he got to the turn of my Lord Justice Tanko, he stated that ” he is the first person to be appointed to the Supreme Court as a moslem.”

This claim is not factual.

In fact, at the time Justice Sule Gbadegbe was appointed as a Supreme Court judge, he was a Moslem.

He subsequently became a practising Christian.

So it cannot be true that Nana Addo is the first President to have appointed a person to the Supreme Court who is a moslem.

Let me quickly add that I am not happy that Nana Addo decided to do religious politics with the appointment of Justice Tanko to the apex court.

Justice Amadu Tanko is one of the brilliant Justices that I have appeared before.

I did an application for stay of proceedings before the Court of Appeal.

He together with two other Justices refused my application for stay.

Even though, the Court refused my application, he wrote a scholarly concurring opinion on what constitute ” exceptional circumstances” to warrant the grant of stay.

I had to use that concurring opinion to get a stay in another case.

In fact the Judge remarked that ” this is the second stay I have to grant a stay since I became a High court judge.”

My point is that Justice Tanko rise to the Supreme Court is purely on merit and not because he is a moslem or Christian.

Let us not saddle him with this needless controversy.

A very hardworking judge without more.

No noise was made with the appointment of Justice Sule Gbadegbe then”