Ghana's judiciary dismisses 19 workers over bribery scandal

Ghana's Judicial Service has dismissed 19 of its staff for their involvement in a bribery scandal that rocked the country.

A statement released Thursday and signed by Justice Alex Opoku B. Acheampong, Judicial Secretary, said the court registrars, interpreters and a watchman were said to have received bribes in various sums to help influence judgments.

The workers were dismissed for "consciously and willingly acting as conduits between representatives of investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas' Tigereye PI and the judges, and for illegally demanding and receiving various sums of money for the judges and themselves".

Ghanaian investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas last year captured some 34 judges and scores of judicial service workers on video allegedly taking bribes to influence judgments.

The exposure, which has become the biggest corruption scandal to have hit the judiciary, received widespread condemnation.

The country's Chief Justice, Theodora Georgina Wood, subsequently formed various committees to investigate the matter.

Twenty-three judges of the lower court have been removed following their indictment in the same scandal.

These removals followed a directive from President John Dramani Mahama, who accepted the recommendations of a five-member committee that investigated some 12 indicted High Court Judges in accordance with Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution. Endit