Chief Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo says she has decided to marshal every effort in law and leadership to demand justice in the process being used to remove her from office.
She said she had been confronted with “a model of injustice” she never would have thought possible if she had not been exposed to the circumstances surrounding her removal process.
“Let me assure everybody that I do not seek to cling to a title or position…I consider it my onerous duty and obligation to speak up concerning the administration of justice in the country,” she said.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra on Wednesday, Chief Justice Torkonoo, now on suspension, said resigning or retiring while Article 146 proceedings were being conducted to remove a judge was not an option any judge or public official was even allowed to have.
Chief Justice Torkornoo said no one had the authority to walk away from proceedings started by the State.
“Judgement can be entered against you because you failed to defend yourself, and a judge who resigns or retires would still lose all entitlements because they failed to defend the claims and resigned or retired while proceedings were going on,” she said.
“Therefore, if false claims are made against you, a Judge or Commissioner or other public office holder subject to Article 146 proceedings, just to achieve a political agenda, the solution cannot be to resign or voluntarily retire out of frustration, pressure or fear.”
She said as Chief Justice she would not “turn a tail and run when she knew the implications of not defending false and unwarranted charges.”
“If I resign under these circumstances, I will be saying that this flawed, unknown and opaque process is acceptable. It is not.”
She recounted how her application for the proceedings of the committee set by the President to be made public was turned down.
“I asked for a public hearing because I know the secrecy of the proceedings for removing Judges was not created in the Constitution to be used as a cover- up for any agenda.”
“I have decided to make this statement because the violations have not stopped but have escalated beyond anything I could imagine as possible in justice delivery,” she said.
Additionally, Chief Justice Torkornoo said she had received threats to the effect that if she failed to resign or voluntarily retire, she would be made to suffer one harm or the other.
She cited the committee’s refusal to recognise her counsel on the first day of its proceedings, its failure to indicate the specific allegations in which a prema facie case had been made against her, and the decision not permit two of the petitioners (Mr Daniel Ofori and Shinning Stars) not to testify so she could cross examine them on those petitions.
She said looking at Article 146, no rules provided under the law, which regulated hearings and trials, had been followed.
Justice Torkornoo noted that there were three petitions before the Committee, and each allegation against her was either a lie or wrong opinion about how work was conducted in the Judicial Service.
Responding to some allegations raised by one of the petitioners, known as Mr Daniel Ofori, on her travelling, Justice Torkornoo admitted that she was offered $14,000 and she spent only $4,400 and returned $9,600.
On Mr Ayamga Akolgo’s petition, Chief Justice Torkornoo noted that his exhibits of being arrested after a court ruling rather proved otherwise.
A look at a group named Shinning Stars, which also filed a petition against her, was not even registered during a search, she noted.
Chief Torkornoo said she and her lawyers would be heading to the High Court again as she caused her lawyers to file applications for judicial review in the High Court to declare all proceedings of the committee void.
“The clear danger is that in light of flagrant violation of CI 47, the very rules the Committee claims to be using, and the darkness of the current proceeding being held in camera, my lawyers and I can come to the end of proceedings; the evidence will show that every allegation in the petitions that were given to me by the President on March 27, 2025 is unfounded and untrue,” Justice Torkornoo said.
Source: GNA
