Suspended CJ’s suit unconstitutional, provocative; ‘barking but can't bite’ — Kwaku Ansa-Asare

Former Director of the Ghana School of Law, Kwaku Ansa-Asare, has strongly criticized suspended Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo's attempt to halt the constitutional process initiated for her potential removal from office.

Describing her legal action as both “unconstitutional” and “provocative,” Ansa-Asare warned it threatens the integrity of Ghana's constitutional order.

Speaking to Joy News on Wednesday, May 21, Ansa-Asare declared, “This is a very worrying unfolding story that the Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo will seek to stop the constitutional process. Any application to stop the process will itself be unconstitutional.”

Justice Torkornoo, who was suspended by President John Dramani Mahama under Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution following three petitions for her removal, has filed an interlocutory injunction at the Supreme Court.

Her application, filed by former Attorney-General Godfred Yeboah Dame, seeks to bar Justices Gabriel Scott Pwamang and Samuel Asiedu from the inquiry, alleging they held private meetings with a lawyer involved in the matter.

But Ansa-Asare contends the Chief Justice's actions are a deliberate attempt to obstruct due process. “What the lawyers are doing and what the Chief Justice herself has done is to bark but cannot bite; they are merely barking,” he said.

According to Ansa-Asare, President Mahama has strictly followed the procedures outlined in Article 146, and the Chief Justice's first course of redress should have been the Judicial Council, not the apex court.

“She should have gone to the Judicial Council,” he stressed. “That body was created by the Constitution to help successive Chief Justices behave themselves.”

He added that the Constitution does not grant the judiciary absolute independence and warned that seeking to frustrate a constitutional process undermines public trust.