They who kill judges, have added removal of a CJ to their profile — Elizabeth Ohene

Veteran journalist and politician Elizabeth Ohene has described the removal of Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo by President John Dramani Mahama as a dark moment that echoes the country’s painful history.

She compared the development to the June 1982 murders of three judges and a military officer, an event she said left her with an “aching, paralysing knot” in her stomach.

According to her, the same feeling returned when she heard about the Chief Justice’s removal on Monday, September 1, 2025.

In a write-up, Madam Ohene argued that the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), which she says traces its history to the revolution that witnessed the killing of judges, has now gone further to add the removal of a Chief Justice to its record.

“I was hoping against hope that the NDC party, coming from a background of people who kill judges, would not want to add the sacking of a Chief Justice to their profile,” she wrote.

She recounted how in 2008, the NDC had also sought the removal of then Chief Justice Georgina Wood but backed down after President John Evans Atta Mills allowed her to respond publicly to petitions against her.

She contrasted the approach of the late President Mills with that of President Mahama, whom she described as a “Supreme Leader” with overwhelming control of government.

“Unfortunately, there is nothing I have heard or read since the announcement of the removal of the Chief Justice that gives the slightest impression that the people involved in this enterprise even acknowledge the seriousness and enormity of what they have done,” she stated.