Let’s not play the gender card; let the law decide CJ Torkonoo’s fate — Nana Yaa Jantuah

Presidential Staffer Nana Yaa Jantuah has stated that suspended Chief Justice Gertrude Esaaba Torkonoo should not be given special treatment in the ongoing inquiry into petitions seeking her removal from office.

According to her, calls for leniency based on the Chief Justice’s gender are misplaced, stressing that the law must be allowed to take its course regardless of one’s status or identity.

Speaking on Accra-based Channel One TV’s Breakfast Daily on Thursday, May 22, the politician insisted that due process must be followed to determine the outcome of the case.

“I do not think we should play the gender card — that because she’s a woman, she’s being attacked. No. If the law says A, let A work. I’ve sat on this same platform and said, let the process go through. It’s in the Constitution. Why is everybody fighting it? Let it go through.

“Others have gone through the process, and whatever happened, happened. Some were even exonerated. So let what the Constitution says be done. Nobody knows the end from now, so let’s not preempt it,” she said.

Meanwhile, in a lawsuit filed at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, May 21, Justice Torkonoo is seeking 16 reliefs, including an order to reverse her suspension and an interlocutory injunction to stop all proceedings of the five-member committee probing the petitions for her removal.

She also prayed the apex court to restrain Justices Gabriel Scott Pwamang and Samuel Kwame Adibu-Asiedu from participating in the process, citing concerns over their impartiality.

Speaking on Accra-based JoyNews after the suit was filed, her lawyer, former Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame, said he is defending the independence of the judiciary and called on principled citizens to speak out against the removal process.