Sophia Akuffo Resignation And The Long Silence That Followed Raise Constitutional Questions

For nine months, Ghana's Council of State — the constitutional body established under Article 89 of the 1992 Constitution to function as the nation's “Council of Elders” — has operated without one of its most distinguished members.

For nine months, the resignation letter of former Chief Justice Sophia A. B. Akuffo sat in an administrative hole, neither announced nor acted upon. And for nine months, the government offered no explanation.

That silence was finally broken on 14 June 2026, when the Office of the President confirmed that President John Dramani Mahama had accepted the resignation, which we now know was submitted in September 2025.

The question hanging over Jubilee House this week is not whether the resignation has been accepted, but why it took almost a year for anybody to say anything.

Justice Akuffo, who served as Chief Justice of Ghana from 2017 to 2019, was appointed to the Council of State by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo under Article 89(2)(c), which specifically requires the inclusion of a former chief justice.

Her decision to resign followed a well-publicised constitutional question which arose in August 2025, when the Council of State voted on the recommendation to remove then-Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, following three misconduct petitions referred to it by the president.

The result was educational: 30 members voted in favour of removal; Justice Akuffo abstained as the lone dissenting voice.

Sources say Justice Akuffo accompanied her vote with a strongly worded statement raising concerns about the process, the handling of the petitions against Chief Justice Torkornoo and what she saw as procedural irregularities.

She has not attended a single Council meeting since that vote. Her resignation letter, dated September 2025, was submitted to the President shortly after the Justice Torkornoo dismissal was formalised.

The nine-month gap between submission and public acknowledgement represents more than administrative slowness. It constitutes, at the very least, a failure of constitutional transparency.

The Council of State Act, 2020 (Act 1037), Section 8, allows for resignation, but nowhere does it say that the resignation may be held in secrecy while the member ceases to serve.

By the time the Office of the President spoke, Justice Akuffo had, in effect, vacated her seat for three-quarters of a year, and the Council of State, with its exactly 31 members and specified categories, has operated at less than full strength while the public has been denied knowledge of that fact.

When the president announced on 14 June that “processes are under way to replace her”, he did not explain why those processes were not under way in October 2025.

This is not the first time the Council of State has been involved in controversy surrounding vacancies and executive handling. In the early days of the Fourth Republic, both Presidents Jerry Rawlings and John Agyekum Kufuor faced questions about the timely nature of their appointments to the Council.

Civil society organisations have raised concerns in the past that delayed appointments gave the executive undue influence over the Council's composition at critical moments.

Justice Akuffo's actions — her initial abstention on the Chief Justice Torkornoo matter, followed by her resignation from the Council of State — suggest an independent judiciary raising questions about interference of the political establishment. They also raise questions as to whether the Council of State's advisory role is properly respected.

Obviously there are serious political questions around this resignation affair. First is the timing of the acknowledgement, June 2026 coming at a time when the Mahama administration is approaching the midpoint of its term, with speculation already building about cabinet reshuffles and political repositioning. The poorly kept secret of this resignation raises questions about what else is being kept hidden.

The unprecedented removal of a sitting chief justice in the Torkornoo debacle is not yet forgotten and has exposed problems with the relationship between the executive and the judiciary. Justice Akuffo's resignation suggests this problem extends to the Council of State.

Thirdly, the government's handling of the resignation raises the question of how the executive treats constitutional bodies almost as instruments of convenience, acknowledging their independence only when politically expedient.

At its core, the matter is not merely about one resignation but rather about the resilience of Ghana's constitutional framework against executive convenience. The 1992 Constitution assigns significant roles to the Council of State, which advises the president on appointments and addresses national issues. However, if the composition of this Council can be manipulated through delays and unfilled vacancies, it undermines the intended checks envisioned by the constitution.

As the honourable former Chief Justice Akuffo herself might have said, “The Constitution is not a document of convenience. It demands good faith from all who swear to uphold it.”

The jury is still out on the question of “good faith”.

By Kojo Mensah

   Comments0