Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie and Justice Gertrude Torkornoo
President Mahama has suspended Chief Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo following the setting up of a five-member committee to probe the three petitions calling for her removal from office.
A statement issued by the Spokesperson to the President and Minister in charge of Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, indicates that the President has, in accordance with Article 146(6) of the Constitution and in consultation with the Council of State, determined that a prima facie case has been established in respect of three petitions against the Chief Justice.
The statement noted that the President has consequently established a committee in compliance with Article 146(6) of the Constitution and in consultation with the Council of State to inquire into the petitions which have been referred to them.
Justice Baffoe-Bonnie Acting CJ
In the absence of Justice Torkornoo, Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, who is senior most judge at the Supreme Court, will be acting as Chief Justice until such time when she will resume her duties or a new Chief Justice assumes office.
This is in line with Article 144(6)(b) of the 1992 Constitution which states that where the office of the Justice becomes vacant “until the person holding that office has resumed the functions of that office; as the case may be, those functions shall be performed by the most senior of the Justices of the Supreme Court.”
Justice Baffoe-Bonnie, was appointed to the Supreme Court bench in June 2008 by then President John Agyekum Kufuor.
Committee
The committee is chaired by former General Secretary of the People’s National Convention (PNC) Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang, a Justice of the Supreme Court who has been tipped by some as the next Chief Justice, should the petitions against the current Chief Justice succeed, which is now looking very likely.
The committee includes Justice Samuel Kwame Adibu-Asiedu, a Justice of the Supreme Court who is one of the justices on the five-member panel hearing the suits and injunction applications against the removal of the Chief Justice.
It is recalled that Justice Asiedu was absent during last week’s sitting, forcing the court to adjourn the case to May 6, 2025 due to “unavoidable reasons.”
Other members of the committee include Daniel Yaw Domelevo, a former Auditor-General and a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) team; Major Flora Bazaanura Dalugo of the Ghana Armed Forces and Prof. James Sefah Dzisah, an Associate Professor at the University of Ghana.
The statement added that “Pursuant to Article 146(10) of the Constitution and in accordance with the advice of the Council of State, the President has by a warrant, suspended the Chief Justice with immediate effect pending the outcome of the committee’s proceedings.”
NDC Orchestration
Just moments before the announcement of the suspension of the Chief Justice, Member of Parliament (MP) for Old Tafo, Vincent Ekow Assafuah filed a supplementary affidavit in support of his suit and injunction application at the Supreme Court in which he avers that the petitions to remove the Chief Justice is a ruse by the current government to remove Chief Justice Torkornoo by any means necessary.
He argues that the manner in which the President and the Council of State have handled the three petitions confirms that the purported ‘Article 146 proceedings’ instituted against the Chief Justice are a charade, a farce and merely choreographed to achieve the declared intention of the Government and associates of the current Government to remove the Chief Justice at all costs.
The supplementary affidavit cites occasions where President Mahama attacked the Supreme Court, of which the current Chief Justice has at all material times been part, and expressed his intention to appoint a Chief Justice who will not be “partisan”.
He attached as exhibits, publications of a few speeches by the President in which he blasted the Judiciary and expressed his desire to have “a non-partisan” Judiciary.
He also cites instances where other appointees of the President, have in very recent times, expressed a view on the petitions purportedly presented against the Chief Justice and indicated that she will surely be removed.
“The foregoing demonstrates that the Article 146 proceedings initiated against the Chief Justice are a ruse to give effect to the avowed determination of the current Government to unconstitutionally remove the Chief Justice from office,” the supplementary affidavit avers.
It added that the manner in which the removal of the Chief Justice is being orchestrated, as shown above, represents the biggest assault on the independence of the Judiciary ever witnessed in the history of constitutional rule in Ghana, and should not be countenanced by the Supreme Court.
Poisonous Advice
Meanwhile, former Deputy Attorney General, Alfred Tuah-Yeboah has described the advice of the Council of State resulting in the suspension of the Chief Justice as “very poisonous.”
According to him, he is surprised by the decision of the President to suspend the Chief Justice, especially when the President is not bound by the advice of the Council of State.
“The President may decide not to go by the advice and still indicate that the Chief Justice should be in office while the matter is being heard by the panel. But that is the decision of the President and I see the advice of the Council of State as being very poisonous,” he stressed.
Mr. Tuah-Yeboah called for restraint in dealing with the heads of the arms of government in Ghana, indicating that the expectation is that the Council of State acts in such a way that will lead to a balanced trial.
He said there are instances where the Council of State may advice the President, but the ground should be so weighty and not hollow.
“From what we have read, if these are the grounds on which they have recommended that the Chief Justice should be suspended pending the hearing of the matter, then, I am so disappointed in that decision,” Mr. Tuah-Yeboah added.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak