Secrecy over CJ’s suspension an unwise constitutional diktat — Franklin Cudjoe

Founding President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has criticised the lack of transparency surrounding the ongoing process to determine whether Ghana’s Chief Justice, Her Ladyship Gertrude Esaaba Torkonoo, should be removed from office.

According to the policy analyst, suspending or removing a Chief Justice without informing the public of the reasons amounts to an “unwise constitutional diktat.”

“How do we suspend or remove a whole Chief Justice without the public getting to know why? This is an unwise constitutional diktat,” he posted on Facebook on Tuesday, April 22.

His comment follows President John Dramani Mahama’s directive suspending the Chief Justice, pending the outcome of a five-member committee inquiry into three separate petitions seeking her removal.

The committee is chaired by Supreme Court Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang. Other members include Justice Samuel Kwame Adibu-Asiedu, former Auditor-General Daniel Yaw Domelevo, Major Flora Bazaanura Dalugo of the Ghana Armed Forces, and Professor James Sefah Dzisah, Associate Professor at the University of Ghana.

Meanwhile, the IMANI boss asserted that the composition of the committee shows the Chief Justice would not be reinstated.

“The names of the committee members that will adjudicate the Chief Justice’s matter should let you know—it is finished,” he noted.

Similarly, the Chairman of the Constitutional Review Committee, Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh, has called for greater transparency in how removal petitions against heads of independent institutions are handled under Ghana’s 1992 Constitution.

In a social media post on Tuesday, April 22, the Executive Director of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) argued that Ghanaians deserve to know why a removal petition succeeds or fails.