Two prominent Ghanaian lawyers, Thaddeus Sory and Godfred Yeboah Dame have taken their fierce legal battle out of the courtroom to the court of public opinion, trading incendiary attacks with an incredibly uncompromising language.
Thaddeus Sory, a lawyer representing one of the petitioners seeking the removal of Chief Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo, was the first to throw salvos at Dame with unprintable words.
In a strongly-worded write-up titled, “The Incongruous Cry Baby Again,” Thaddeus descended heavily on Godfred Dame, saying “Let me say this clearly: stop the tantrums. The next ‘knock’ may not be a gentle tap. It will land like a sledgehammer…In a hard cast manner, don’t be silly…”
Consequently, Dame, the immediate past Attorney-General and Minister for Justice in what has been described by legal analysts as evidence-based response said “I will ignore the rest of the falsehood in your write-up as part of vile propaganda you regularly engage in against me.”
The former Attorney-General mounted a robust defence of his tenure in office, responding directly to claims made by Sory in the recent write-write up.
We publish below side by side, the write-ups of the two lawyers:
THE INCONGRUOUS CRY BABY AGAIN…
By Thaddeus Sory
1. This will be direct and straight forward… no allegoric narrations. This is because the Cry Baby needs another knock and each time he refuses to heed the lesson from the previous knock, the next knock must be harder.
2. Mr. Incongruous Cry Baby has no sense of shame at all. Having failed to attract attention for some time now, Mr. Cry Baby [Incongruous is his first name] has once again started screaming. This time, the forum for his mostly infamous screams is Joy FM’s Top Story programme, not his favourite forum [and you know where].
3. Without any sense of compunction, Cry Baby “incongruously” lamented thus:
“If there are any group of people who have politicized this process it is the NDC government. Look at the band of lawyers representing the petitioners. Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata, Mr. Thaddeus Sory a lawyer who has gone on record as representing all NDC figures in the past 8 years, and who is very much associated with the NDC, Oliver Barker-Vormawor a young man who worked with President Mahama in his office.”
4. That, indeed, is most incongruous. Who I ask, are the band of lawyers representing the Suspended Chief Justice? In just about a month you! Yes Mr. Cry Baby have personally appeared in two of the four suits directly involving proceedings for the Chief Justice’s removal.
5. You were appointed Deputy Attorney-General by former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo—hardly a coincidence. That appointment itself was incongruous. Your elevation to Attorney-General was even more so.
6. Do you recall the host of card-carrying NPP lawyers who surrounded you, not as a private legal practitioner, but as Attorney-General, during the Supreme Court proceedings on the vacant seats case?
7. And yet, without any shred of moral scruple, you allege that I represent an individual (Dan Ofori) solely because I am NDC-affiliated? Even though I represented this client long before the suspended Chief Justice was elevated to the Court of Appeal?
8. Allow me to refresh your memory on my legal diversity: Mr. Ambrose Dery—your colleague Minister—was my pupil master. Together, we defended Mallam Yusuf Isa, who was appointed by President Kufuor.
9. I shared a night at the Police Headquarters with Hon. O.B. Amoah, an NPP stalwart, during a politically sensitive case. I defended accused persons in the Issa Mobila criminal trial, a matter that became a major campaign point for the late President Mills.
10. The firm Kulendi @ Law can attest to the massive support I gave them in the Ghana @ 50 case. Were those accused persons in the Ghana @ 50 case NDC officials?
11. Ask Hon. Kwaku Kwarteng, I represented him in a matter easily perceived as political and anti-NDC. None of the cases I have cited involve the NDC, yet here you are, painting me with a partisan brush.
12. I am a professional, bound by Rule 65 of our legal ethics to represent anyone who retains me, subject only to certain exceptions. If your memory is programmed to interpret everything through an NDC lens, you have my sympathy.
13. In the light of all this, Mr. Cry Baby ridiculously boasted:
“If there is any Attorney-General who, from the start of his appointment, has stood up for the judiciary and spoken against attacks on the judiciary, it is myself.”
14. Your present battle is clearly incongruous. It has nothing to do with principle; it is a blatant effort at self-preservation. Even in that same Joy Fm interview, Evans Mensah observed that you appeared before the Supreme Court—presided over by the suspended Chief Justice—under highly suspicious circumstances. And now you claim to be standing on principle?
15. As Attorney-General, you benefited from a stream of unanimous and often controversial decisions in politically charged cases. You were routinely excused for legal oversights that, in earlier years, would have drawn scathing rebuke from the Supreme Court.
16. For the record: I went against my personal principles and appeared on several radio stations to defend the judiciary, despite being directly involved in related matters. I made it clear I would take action against anyone who maligned the judiciary—without any expectation of recognition.
17. And yet again, without hesitation, you proclaimed:
“It is about time good men of this country stood up for what is righteous and what is right.”
18. If all men in Ghana behaved like you, where will the good men be to be fighting a blasphemous cause you have the temerity to call “righteous and what is right?”
19. How can a Minister for Justice:
• Defend a Supreme Court ruling where an ex parte order was granted within two hours of filing—without hearing the other party?
• Communicate directly with an accused person behind the back of their counsel?
• Coach an accused person to implicate a co-accused?
20. Your initial injunction in the Assafuah proxy case was dismissed. Now, you reappear with the appropriate party and file yet another injunction? The audacity is staggering.
21. There is no Attorney-General who has contributed more to the low rating of the judiciary than you. You are the only Attorney-General who has never lost a case etc. What has changed?
22. No Attorney-General has done more to erode public trust in the judiciary than you. You wear your record of “never losing a case” as a badge of honor. What has changed now?
23. As I once asked: how did your legal acumen suddenly improve just because you became Attorney-General? Now that the mystique of that office has left you, you cling to a 3-2 loss as some kind of moral victory, because at least it wasn’t unanimous.
24. Let me say this clearly: stop the tantrums. The next “knock” may not be a gentle tap. It will land like a sledgehammer… In a hard cast like manner, don’t be silly…
Greetings Thaddeus Sory, Esq.,
Your predilection to comment on the slightest thing I do or say is not lost on the public. For some time now, you have been expending enormous energy, time and resources to launch public attacks on me in relation to my work. I live in your mind rent free. Indeed, your obsession with Godfred Dame is bewildering and needs healing.
The abusive and offensive language you employ is deplored by most decent minded legal practitioners, and in clear contravention of the rules of professional conduct and etiquette governing the legal profession, coming from one with considerable standing at the Bar. I leave the authorities that regulate the legal profession and are responsible for upholding standards of professional conduct to judge. I have always ignored the write-ups you have produced about me. For the first time, however, and hopefully it will be the last, I am compelled to correct a few things you have got fundamentally wrong. I will ignore the rest of the falsehood in your write-up as part of the vile propaganda you regularly engage in against me, which all can see through.
1. You state at paragraph 22, that, I “wear [my] record of never losing a case as a badge of honour”, in my tenure as Attorney-General. You quipped “what has changed?”
Clearly, you are wrong. The allegation is mischievous and only continues a series of falsehoods often produced by lawyers of the NDC ilk to feed their foot soldiers. The record will show that as Attorney-General, I publicly touted some significant losses suffered by my office in very important matters in the Superior Courts of Judicature as a symbol of judicial independence in Ghana. On 11th September, 2023, at the Annual Bar Conference in Cape Coast, I had this to say:
“When I look back at certain cases whose outcomes I consider undesirable, regardless of my own views on the questions being judged in them, I come to the conclusion that, what we have in this country is a fiercely independent Judiciary in which all of us should take pride that, an aggrieved citizen can go to a court of law and challenge anyone, including decisions of the President and Parliament, and be confident that the Court will give a decision without fear or favour. I refer to recent decisions of the Supreme Court in the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development & 8 others vrs. The Attorney-General, Ezuame Mannan vrs. The Attorney-General and vrs. The Attorney-General.
Again, on 9th September, 2024, at the Bar Conference in Kumasi, I proudly exhibited some of my losses.
“I can confidently say that I have been an Attorney-General in whose tenure the Judiciary has demonstrated complete independence and strength through decisions it gives in cases involving the State. In both civil and criminal jurisdictions, my Office has had many victories, but we have also experienced some adverse decisions. Examples are the decisions of the Supreme Court in Ghana Centre for Democratic Development & 8 others vrs. The Attorney-General (the removal of former Auditor-General, Mr. Dormelovo from office), Appiagyei Atuah vrs. The Attorney-General (the Imposition of Restrictions in Covid-19 case) and Ezuame Mannan vrs. the Attorney-General and the Speaker of Parliament (the Narcotics Control Commission Law case).
You would notice that most of these defeats were by a unanimous verdict of the Supreme Court. I will add to my losses the controversial 2-1 majority decision of the Court of Appeal in Republic vrs. Cassiel Ato Forson & 2 Others, whose correctness the current Attorney-General prevented the Supreme Court from assessing, by swiftly filing a notice of withdrawal when the NDC assumed power in January, 2025.
2. I note that in life, when one enjoys tremendous success in a field of endeavour or an office, there is the tendency to assume that one experienced no failure on any occasion. You and the NDC may thus be forgiven to think that I “never lost a case as Attorney-General”.
3. You state at paragraph 23 of your write-up that you “once asked: how did your [referring to me] legal acumen suddenly improve just because you became Attorney-General?”
Oh Thaddeus! Doth ye have such short memory? Have you forgotten that in the only full trial of a case you and I happened to be on opposing sides between 2007 and 2009 when you were at Dery & Co., you lost miserably (potoo, as we say in Ghanaian parlance) when judgment was delivered by Ofosu-Quartey J. in May, 2009? Unperturbed, you led your clients to pursue an appeal at the Court of Appeal and lost again, in a judgment delivered on 25th July, 2013. Was I the Attorney-General in those years?
A person who cursorily reads your write-up will be permitted to infer that you suffer pangs of jealousy. This, I cannot help. I can only urge you not to be quick to boast of your “legal acumen”, as you put it, or soil the hard-earned reputation of your fellow lawyers.
4. When as Deputy Attorney-General, I valiantly conducted many dangerous cases much to the chagrin of the NDC, including a recovery of part of the Woyome ill-gotten cash, was I the Attorney-General? For your reminder, part of the Woyome cash (the “balance” as we say in Ghana) is outstanding. Use your “legal acumen” to assist the current Attorney-General to recover with interest, instead of expending time and energy in coming to the Supreme Court every day to monitor how cases affecting Torkonoo CJ are going, even when you are not counsel in it.
5. Fortunately, the “legal acumen” you claimed I found when I was appointed Attorney-General was not limited to the domestic territories of Ghana. I deployed same to the successful defence of Ghana’s interests in many international arbitration cases and foreign courts, saving the nation billions of United States Dollars. In point of fact, in my tenure as Attorney-General, Ghana emerged victorious in all the international arbitrations my humble self and my able deputies led the Office to conduct without the aid of foreign counsel. In tribute to Ghana’s legal talent, I say that in the last international arbitration conducted solely by myself and my colleague Deputy Attorneys-General, which culminated in an award delivered on 18th November, 2024, Ghana’s case was roundly upheld with costs of about US$2.2 Million in her favour.
6. In all humility, I say, as a testament to the strength of Ghana’s judicial system, that the record of the consistent success I enjoyed in the courts in innumerable high-profile cases I conducted between 2003 and 2007 (as a relatively junior lawyer) and between 2009 and 2017 (when I was not the Attorney-General but a lawyer who was a member of the opposition), is there for all to verify. It is this independence of Ghana’s judiciary that I see is threatened by recent happenings in Ghana, and which I seek to protect. You and the NDC’s desperation to churn out a false narrative now will not change the situation.
7. I have never said that you have not represented NPP clients. I am aware of your association with NPP clients particularly, when you were a junior to Mr. Ambrose Dery in Dery & Co. The irrefutable point I make now is that Mr. Tsikata was President Mahama’s lawyer in the last election petition in 2020. You are the current Speaker of Parliament’s lawyer and double as lawyer for a person who is aggrieved by judgments delivered by the Chief Justice against him in his attempt to recover some gargantuan money from Ecobank. If you do not find it “incongruous” that the lawyers of the heads of two arms of government have teamed up to remove the lady Chief Justice of the Republic from office, I cannot fault you.
You assert your duty to “represent anyone who retains” you. Do I not owe the same duty?
This, I hope will be my only and ever response to you. I will continue to ignore all your provocative comments. However, knowing your obsession with me, I am sure it will draw more abuse from you.
As they say, “when Godfred Dame coughs, the whole NDC catches a cold”.
24th May, 2025
Godfred Yeboah Dame,
Dame & Partners,
Accra.
