CJ Torkonoo should disengage Dame; his involvement is terrible — Kpebu

Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu has criticised the decision by suspended Chief Justice Gertrude Torkonoo to appoint former Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame as her lead counsel in the ongoing lawsuit challenging her removal process.

In the suit filed at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, May 21, on behalf of Justice Torkonoo, Mr Dame is seeking 16 reliefs.

These include an order to reverse the Chief Justice’s suspension and an interlocutory injunction to halt the proceedings of the five-member committee probing the petitions for her removal.

The suit also prays the apex court to restrain Justices Gabriel Scott Pwamang and Samuel Kwame Adibu-Asiedu from participating in the proceedings, citing concerns about their impartiality.

Reacting to the case on Accra-based TV3, Mr Kpebu urged the embattled Chief Justice to disengage Mr Dame, whom he described as having a tainted public image due to recent controversies surrounding the now-concluded ambulance procurement trial.

He referenced allegations made by Richard Jakpa, the third accused in the ambulance case, who claimed that Mr Dame contacted him at odd hours, urging him to provide testimony against the first accused, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson.

These allegations, coupled with a leaked 16-minute phone conversation between Jakpa and Mr Dame, sparked national outrage, with calls for the former Attorney General to resign.

“The optics are very bad in her choice of lawyer. It’s terrible. I mean, I can’t believe it. People have made comments earlier on, so I thought the Chief Justice would have taken a cue.

“Dame was in this Jakpa tape, coaching a witness to lie to the court, asking the witness to get a fake medical report. You know, saying that Akufo-Addo and Ofori-Atta were on his neck to use the judicial system to prosecute Ato Forson and Jakpa,” he alleged.

According to Mr. Kpebu, this makes the Chief Justice’s choice even worse, considering Mr Dame may soon face sanctions from the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council.