Gertrude Torkornoo
THE Chief Justice nominee, Gertrude Torkornoo, has refuted the claims that Judges take bribes before delivering judgments.
According to her, it is impossible to bribe judges, and urged the public to dismiss such perceptions.
She explained that such funds often end up in the pockets of those intermediaries rather than reaching the intended judges, therefore, cautioning the public against offering money to certain individuals to influence judges.
Speaking during her vetting by the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Friday, May 26, she advised against providing money to individuals who claim they can influence judges, referring to them as “judicial predators.”
Justice Torkornoo added that “Don’t give money to people to be taken to judges. There is a whole market; we call it judicial predators. It’s a whole predatory group around our function and that is something that we constantly try to address in our study of ethics both for judges and staff.”
Justice Torkornoo also refuted claims that the Supreme Court is biased when delivering rulings on political cases.
“Whenever you encounter a unanimous decision, it tells you that the law is totally on the side of the position taken by the court, that every member of the court in fidelity to their judicial oath cannot take a different position, it tells you that, that is what the law is.
“So the only response is to learn from what the law says, it is not a matter of bias, it is a matter of the legal position.”
Justice Torkornoo, if approved, will become the third female Chief Justice in the history of Ghana, after Justices Georgina Theodora Wood and Sophia Akuffo.
-BY Daniel Bampoe