Ghana’s president suspends the country’s Supreme Court’s chief justice with surprise move
Ghana Accra – The Ghanaian president has suspended the country’s top court’s chief justice, the government said a few days after an investigation against her. The surprise move aroused the anger of the opposition.
Garnien President John Mahama’s announcement on the suspension of Judge Gertrude Torkornoo, a press statement on Tuesday issued without providing any details or explanation.
The Associated Press could not immediately contact government officials or judges for comment.
The announcement is a preliminary investigation into Torkornoo based on three petitions that have not yet been published. The suspension marks the first time that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has been suspended since Ghana’s 1992 Constitution.
Mahama, who served as the political career of communication minister, served as Ghana’s third term in January after winning the presidential election late last year. The December vote for the president and parliament was seen as a democratic test in areas where extremist violence and coups were shaken.
Mahama promises to deal with the country’s economic crisis (the worst of a generation) as well as corruption and unemployment. He used to take office from July 2012 to January 2017.
The opposition’s new patriot party blew up Torkono’s moratorium and threatened to protest the ruling, party official Henry Nana Boakye told reporters at a press conference.
Boakye said the suspension of Torkornoo violates the law and guarantees that the opposition will not rest without action.
“The president should allow the rules and principles of the law to be followed before politically motivated activities continue to move forward,” Boakye said Wednesday.
The party’s secretary-general Justin Fimpong-Kodua accused Mahamma of “an unprecedented attack on judicial independence and a blatant violation of Ghana’s constitution” and called for the immediate resumption of Torkornoo.
“This is not the hope of Ghana’s democracy, but also a country that has experienced several elections, should make progress, not regress,” he said. The president’s actions “are not only ridiculous, but also offensive and unconstitutional.”
The H Kwasi Prempeh think tank in Ghana’s Center for Democratic Development expressed concerns about the rejection of the judge and called for greater transparency and institutional reform.
Prempeh said that even if other Supreme Court justices decide to dismiss Torkornoo, it would violate the law because she is their “boss” and that they “may be interested in the outcome.”
