Former Ranking Member of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament has said that the Legislature should have chosen a different approach in dealing with the denial of admission to some candidates who sat the entrance examination to the Ghana School of Law.
The former Tamale Central MP believes it would have been more appropriate for the lawmakers to have invited the Management of the General Legal Council to discuss the matter.
“I think that Parliament should have chosen another route. They should have invited the General Legal Council as part of their oversight responsibilities to explain to them (Parliament) the reasons why 499 students were excluded from the admission list as advertised in their earlier advertisement for prospective students who wanted to enroll at the law school,” Mr Inusah Fuseini stressed when he spoke to Ernest Manu on Joy FM’s Top Story on Monday.
There have been divided opinions on the legitimacy of Parliament’s directive, through a unanimous resolution, to the General Legal Council to admit all 499 LLB candidates who were denied admission to undertake the professional law course.
The Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, in a letter addressed to the Speaker argued that Parliament cannot use a Resolution to make such directions.
“Whilst recognizing the general legislative powers of Parliament in Ghana, except as has been circumscribed by the Constitution, I am constrained to advise that Parliament is devoid of power through the use of Parliamentary resolutions, to control the process of admission into the Ghana School of Law. The mode of exercising legislative power enshrined in article 106 of the Constitution does not admit of resolutions,” part of the letter read.
Joining discussions on the matter, Inusah Fuseini, described Parliament’s approach as “confrontational.”
He said such an approach “does not help bring the issues to the fore.
“The issue confronting us in Ghana is not the 499 students.
“Clearly, we need facilities to be expanded in such a way that will make the opportunity of enrolling to the Ghana School of Law available to a greater number of students,” he added.
The former lawmaker suggested also, that Parliament could also have directed “the Executive to make resources available” for the expansion of the Ghana School of Law
