CJ Removal Trial: Why Are We Permitting Such Gross Miscarriage of Justice?

Not only is the abominable venue chosen by the Committee established by President John “European Airbus SE Payola” Dramani Mahama to stage the long-anticipated and premeditated charade of the prosecution and “execution” of Chief Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey-Torkornoo incongruous with and diametrically opposed to the democratic ideals for which the Founding-Fathers of Modern Ghana religiously dedicated their lives - and here, the reference is to more than just the legendary Big Six, namely, Kwame Nkrumah, Dr. J B. Danquah, Emmanuel Obetsebi-Lamptey, Ebenezer Ako-Adjei, Edward Akufo-Addo and William “Paa Willie” Ofori-Atta but, in fact to both the valiant leaders, both traditionally recognized and/or invested and their contemporary counterparts, including the men and, for certain, the historically unsung “Sheroic” women who staunchly committed their yeomanly efforts and their very lives to the collective realization of our postcolonial sovereignty - it also inexcusably traduces the very concept of democratic justice, accountability and the sacred rule of law and order in toto.

The metaphorical essence and the implication of staging the petition-based impeachment and the patently pro-forma trial for the removal of Chief Justice Sackey-Torkornoo at the Old Danish Slave Fort at Osu, Accra, could not be more indescribably abominable (See “FULL TEXT: CJ Torkornoo’s Supplementary Affidavit Challenging Hearing on Petitions for Her Removal” Ghanaweb.com 5/27/25). But what is equally curious and morally prohibitive, to speak much less about the downright despicable, was the decision by the Counsel or the Team of Attorneys Representing the Chief Justice to so passively take this sinister and psychologically crippling bait on behalf of their distinguished and globally renowned and professionally eminent client.

There is, of course, an obvious hint of fright and intimidation here, the farcical pretext and guise of “National Security” adduced for such an unspeakable act of human and political depravity by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, to wit, Dr. Dominic Akuritinga Ayiné, to the contrary notwithstanding. But the most galling aspect of it all is the “Danquaesque” denial of such very basic appurtenances as computer laptops and cellphones and other related gadgets and professionally relevant implements into the premises of the Court or, more appropriately, the theater of adjudication, at the same time that these very same items of practical necessity have been permitted by the Court to lawyers representing the petitioners upon the basis of whose grievances the “Suspended” Chief Justice Sackey-Torkornoo is being literally hung out to dry.

The respondent also tells the General Ghanaian Public, via her widely publicized affidavit and other rejoining memoranda and documents, that she is being literally treated more like a common criminal or a felon than a bona fide Ghanaian citizen, although, so far, absolutely no concrete treasonable findings of any criminal misdeeds have been forensically unimpeachably and conclusively established against her by the Mahama-constituted Committee of Adjudication, including being stripped searched or thoroughly frisked prior to her entrance or admission into the trial venue. As well, there is a flat refusal by the Court for Chief Justice Sackey-Torkornoo to be represented in absentia by her Counsel when circumstances had made her physical presence impossible, although all her summonses have been routed through her Counsel as her legitimate legal and judicial representatives.

On the latter score, though, one wonders what the leadership of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), the country’s oldest and most prestigious organization of licensed legal practitioners, has to say about the express and/or categorical inflicting of human indignities against the Third Woman Ghanaian-Born Citizen to have been elevated to the coveted status of the highest office of the country’s Judicial Establishment, including the allegedly categorical refusal by the NDC-fangled Kangaroo Court of Adjudication to permit the husband and the adult children of Chief Justice Sackey-Torkornoo, among other relatives of the Sackey-Torkornoo Family and Clan, to attend this most epochal and historically seismic crisis of Jurisprudence in Fourth-Republican Ghana.

The presence or the need for the presence of the Sackey-Torkornoo Family and/or Clan at the venue of the trial of their distinguished Matriarch is an imperative necessity, in view of Chief Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey-Torkornoo having been sworn to leadership of the Apex Court in the presence of her husband, as a prime or “star witness,” and the rest of her family members and relatives, regardless of whatever the various sections and subsections of Article 146 of Ghana’s Fourth-Republican Constitution have to say vis-a-vis the milieu or the physical spatial context within which the trial of an indicted Head of the Country’s Judicial Establishment is to be held or adjudicated.

You see, it is increasingly becoming obvious that the politically motivated forces of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that inadvisably forced the hand of a politically “Born Again” President John “I Have No Classmates in Ghana” Dramani Mahama, had grossly underestimated the steely resolve of the overwhelming majority of the Ghanaian people and the citizenry to ensure that a politically intoxicated default leadership of the Rawlings-fangled institutional establishment will not be able to cavalierly abuse their patience and their capacity for enduring rank official corruption and the wanton exploitation of the collective resources of our beloved Sovereign Democratic Republic of Ghana in perpetuity.

The Mahama 2.0 Presidency and Government would be far better off to sedulously concentrate its efforts on the modernization and the rapid industrial development of the country, if it intends or hopes to leave any lasting and morally and socioeconomically worthwhile legacy in the minds and the hearts of the present generation of Ghanaian youths and the ECOWAS SubRegion at large.

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
Professor Emeritus, Department of English
SUNY-Nassau Community College
Garden City, New York
E-mail: [email protected]