The Ghanaian Journal

“When a Lawyer errs, it does not mean that he is incompetent. It means that he is HUMAN”
I will forever remember the late Peter Ala Adjetey by these words that he pronounced to a foreign client of ours at the Dynasty Restaurant a few years ago.

The effect of these otherwise mundane words was profound. Indeed until that day I had taken the fallibility of a lawyer for granted. I realised that many clients don’t. To a client you are either a good lawyer or an ape that should be denounced depending on if he loses or wins the case.

In the hot summer of July, 1968, I received a message from my mother that Mr Ala Adjetey was in London and would like to meet me there. I had just collected the result of my final Bachelor of Laws Examination from the Senate House of the University of London.

On the side of Hyde Park was the plush Hilton Hotel. And waiting there to congratulate me and to sign my papers for admission to the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple was a gentleman I held in awe and myth as a child growing up in Aborm, La — my Uncle Peter Ala Adjetey.

For the next 40 years Mr Adjetey remained an icon from whom I learnt and from whom I derived inspiration. I admired his commitment to the institution of law, which was only equalled by his dedication to the rule of law.

He lived and died by the law. He defended the rule of law at his peril and paid dearly for it. His belief in a just and free society where the individual could pursue and achieve goals limited only by his ability and intellect propelled him into politics.

He was appointed the Speaker of the 3rd Parliament of the Fourth Republic and thus succeeded another Accra Aca Old Boy — the Late Justice D.F. Annan.

Mr Peter Adjetey’s cogent argument in the case of Nii Kpobi Tettey Tsuru III vrs Nii Ago Sai & Others, Suit No. H1/22/04, led to the reaffirmation by the Court of Appeal of the principles established in the celebrated case of Boi Owusu vrs Mantse of Labadi 1 WACA 178 that all La Rural Lands are Stool Lands and irrespective of how long a subject of any stool occupied any part of the Stool Land, such occupation cannot be adverse to the Stool’s Title.

Mr Adjetey’s contribution to the development of the law is immense. One has to read his arguments in the law reports to realise the extent of his contribution to the jurisprudence in this country and indeed in Africa.

No wonder he was elected the President of the African Bar Association about a decade ago.

Mr Adjetey remained till his death a cherished member of the International Bar Association and attended some of their important meetings where he contributed learning and scholarship to their deliberations.

His lecture that was delivered on the occasion of the Annual Law Week in March, 2006, on Re: Akoto — Its Implications for the Development of Constitutional Law in Ghana, stands as a testimonial to the brilliance of the late Peter Ala Adjetey.
It was received with much acclaim as a masterpiece for its intellectual stimulation.

It was a matter of great honour for me, when Mr Adjetey trusted me with the tutelage of his daughter, Miranda. I consider it as a vote of confidence in me and cherish it to this day.

On Tuesday, the 15th of July this year, as I extended my hand to congratulate my son in the very well-appointed courtyard of University of Manchester Chapel, the telephone in my pocket rang. The voice on the line was familiar, the news was dreadful. I was dumbfounded. It was almost exactly 40 years to the day that my uncle extended his hand to congratulate me at the Hilton Hotel in London.

As I said welcome to the new generation lawyer, fate enjoined me to say farewell to the older generation lawyer the same day. Fate can be cruel. Very cruel.

Farewell Uncle Peter. May the Lord grant your soul the peace that you relentlessly pursued for other people.
Wo Dzogba!

- by Amarkai Amarteifio