Private legal practitioners Martin Kpebu and Maurice Ampaw have clashed over the former’s demand for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to step done for his poor management of Ghana’s economy.
The clash comes after Maurice Ampaw berated Martin Kpebu for his call for the president’s removal and suggested something might be psychologically wrong with Martin Kpebu.
“In fact, Kpebu needs psychiatric treatment. I’m being frank because a lawyer wants us to enter into a constitutional crisis. Because the Kpebu that I know is a very good lawyer, a brilliant lawyer. But now that he has ventured into politics, it looks as if he has become a different lawyer.
“Now, he is not putting on legal spectacles; he is putting on political spectacles and look at what Kpebu is professing. A whole lawyer is saying that a government must be forced to leave power to hand over power to the opposition.
“… and he buttresses this with Article 41. Tell him that if he has forgotten the Constitution, he should read Article 41 – the duties of the citizens. Where in that provision is it written that the citizen has the right to force the president to resign,” he said in Twi.
Reacting to this in an interview on Neat FM, which GhanaWeb monitored, Martin Kpebu said that Ampaw suggesting that he does not understand the law does not make sense because his records show that he is a better lawyer than him (Ampaw).
“… Maurice Ampaw himself knows that I am a better lawyer than him. He can’t talk about me in this manner. Maurice is someone who has not practised law as I have, and so he can not speak about me like this in public.
“Ask him the number of cases he has done in court. Ask him who his clients are… as a lawyer, how many cases he has worked on. Where is your chamber?” he said in Twi.
Ampaw, who was also on the show, then clapped back at Kpebu, saying he was a more experienced lawyer than him.
“Tell Martin Kpebu that I am his senior. When I was studying law, he was in JHS (Junior High School). When I started winning civil cases, he (Kpebu) was not a lawyer yet. He should bring the court cases he has won for us to compare.
“Does he know my background? He is not my colleague when it comes to legal practice,” he said.
Lawyer Ampaw added that Kpebu’s attempt to get the president to step down is a treasonable offence which he should be punished for.