Justice Sophia Akuffo
The vetting of the newly appointed Chief Justice (CJ), Justice Sophia Akuffo, has been shifted from Monday, June 19 to Friday, June 16 by parliament.
The first deputy speaker of the house and chairman of the Appointments Committee of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu, who briefed the press corps on the changes, said that it had become imperative to shift the vetting date forward in view of the fact that there could be a vacuum in the Judiciary since the acting Chief Justice, Justice William Atuguba, would also be retiring in the course of this week after the official retirement of the substantive Chief Justice, Theodora Georgina Wood, on Thursday, June 8.
He said after the announcement of the date for the vetting was made, no petition had so far been received by the Appointments Committee and so the committee had decided to reschedule the screening to Friday to ensure that the committee gets enough time to prepare its report over the weekend for plenary approval by parliament on Monday, June 19.
Mr Osei-Owusu said since it is a special case involving the Chief Justice, chairmen and ranking members of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee and the Judiciary Committee would be invited to be part of the Appointments Committee.
According to the chairman, each member of the vetting committee would be allotted 20 minutes for his or her questions and members would not be restrained from asking as many questions as they could within the time allocated.
He expressed the hope that the process would be smooth to enable the Committee conclude its work for consideration at the plenary.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr