Justice Apau shares sad life story: I dropped out of School because of 0.02 pesewas

Justice Apau said this yesterday when he appeared before Parliament’s Appointment Committee to be vetted for the Supreme Court.

Going through his curriculum vitae, the Sole Commissioner said he dropped out of Prempeh College because of school fees equivalent to 0.02 pesewas, adding “I left my boxes in Prempeh College and I don’t know who took them.”

Speaking on judgment debt, he advised government to conduct further investigations into some judgment debts and punish officials who would be found responsible for such acts.

Justice Apau, Sole-Commissioner of the Commission of Inquiry said he made those recommendations to the President in his report.

He, however, did not state any specific sanction and some of the officials believed to have played a role in the judgment debts since the government was yet to issue a white paper on the report.

The Appeal Court Judge also explained that Alfred Agbesi Woyome, who received one of the judgment debts, could not be brought before the commission because the matter was being tried in court at that time.

He said all the things Mr. Woyome could have said were documented, hence, they requested for all the documents to aid their work.

Responding to further questions Justice Apau said he was a man of principle and thus would not bend the rule in favour of anybody in his line of work.

He said the fact that a judge has been appointed by the president to the Supreme Court does not mean that the judge should do the biding of the president. “If you do that, you are not a judge.” he said.

He also noted that there was no need for people to “make noise” about the Chief Justice appointing judges to sit on cases since judges are supposed to have principles and work in accordance with the law.

Justice Apau, a Court of Appeal Judge, was the Sole-Commissioner of the Commission of Inquiry appointed by the President in 2012 to look into judgment debts and related matters.