Professor Michael Kpessa Whyte, a lecturer at the University of Ghana, has eaten the humble pie and apologized to the apex court of the country with respect to a statement he made earlier on.
On May 25, 2023, Dr. Kpessa was summoned by the Supreme Court to present a just cause as to why he shouldn’t be held in contempt for allegedly denigrating the highest court of the land.
The decision by the court follows a post by the lecturer in which he indicated that the Supreme Court has now become a stupid court.
“They have succeeded in turning the Supreme Court into a stupid court. Common sense is now a scarce commodity. A major element in the death of democracies is partisanship in the delivery of justice. Our judges need lessons in political philosophy and ethics,’’ he tweeted on May 19, 2023.
Prof. Kpessa has rendered an apology to the Supreme Court of Ghana while clarifying that his tweet was not in reference to the Supreme Court in Ghana but was focused on developments elsewhere.
“I sent a tweet on May 19, 2023, at 9:59 am that shared my reflections on insights from a book by David A. Kaplan (2018), The Most Dangerous Branch: Inside the Supreme Court’s Assault on the Constitution, and recent attempts by the same Democrats in the US to increase the number of Justices at the Apex Court from nine to thirteen,’’ he wrote in his statement sighted by 1Family Radio.
“I have observed that Ghanaweb and other media publications sought to associate my tweet with the decision of the Supreme Court in the Assin North matter as stated on the face of the summons to show cause, but honestly, at the time of my tweet, I had no knowledge of the Supreme Court’s decision as of 9:59 a.m. when I did the tweet.
The said tweet has resulted in the invocation of the powers of the Apex Court in our country for me to appear and show cause because the tweet has scandalized the Apex Court of our land and has brought the dignity of the court into disrepute.
Sincerely, the tweet was not done with the intent to scandalize or denigrate a revered institution such as the Supreme Court of Ghana, for which I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration. These are consequences I never intended, and although I do accept responsibility, I could have exercised better judgment in my choice of words.
Please permit me to state unequivocally that I have no reason to slander our Supreme Court, and I hereby sincerely apologize unreservedly for any pain and discomfort my tweets may have caused the Chief Justice, the Supreme Court, and the entire judiciary.
I hereby retract the tweet in question; accordingly, the tweet has been deleted completely, and I pray for forgiveness.
Source: 1Family Radio
