OLLENU J.A. delivered the ruling of the court.
Learned counsel for the second appellant, Henry Kwadwoe Djaba, objected to Apaloo J.A. joining to constitute the bench for the hearing of the appeal. He grounded his objection upon two short passages which appear in paragraph 144 at p. 24 of the report of the commission of inquiry appointed to inquire into the Kwame Nkrumah Properties, popularly known as the Apaloo Commission after its chairman, Apaloo J.A. The passages referred to read: (i) "Djaba was himself, as is well known, recently convicted of a gigantic fraud" and (ii) "It is not difficult to discern from the attitude which he put up that he expected the ex-President to intervene to stop the prosecution which resulted in his conviction."
Counsel said he took the objection with great trepidation but in the interest of justice, for, he submitted, the words "recently convicted of a gigantic fraud" is likely to convey to the ordinary man, the impression that the learned judge has alrea…