At the Parliaments Appointments Committee on Friday, Madam Sophia Akuffo who strenuously refrained from describing mob action as ‘mob justice”, was emphatic that the action is “a misnomer and it’s definitely not justice, and it’s got nothing to do with” justice as delivered by the judiciary.
Not justifying mob justice in society, the Chief Justice designate elucidated that people usually resort to mob justice based on “misunderstanding of the process”.
Sometimes the society does not understand why a suspect is freed by the system, people also question the point in reporting a crime to the police, the need to go through the court process which sometimes delay and therefore employ “self help” as way of exerting justice by themselves, she explained.
Mob justice has been a source of worry to many but crusaders against the act have not made any inroad. The debate was ignited in June following the gruesome murder of a senior military officer over a mistaken identity.
“Mob justice is not only people beating people up, mob justice is landguards, that is part of mob justice because it is self help, and wherever you see self help, it means that certain things have failed. And if it is within the civil realm, it has to do with, may be, some delay in case management, and so on and so forth. So quality justice helps to speed up efficiently,” she stated.
Touching on the axiom that ‘justice delay is justice denied’, Justice Sophia Akuffo also averted the minds of Ghanaians to the other side of the coin that holds that ‘justice hurried is justice buried’ where many have been convicted wrongfully. Striking the balance, she acknowledged, has been a concern to the judiciary.
She however averred, “So long as there is ‘mob justice’, it means something is not going right, but at least we of the judiciary will do our optimal to ensure that we are not the cause of the mob justice”.
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