Parliament Approves Justice Sophia Akuffo As New Chief Justice

The nomination of Supreme Court Judge, Justice Sophia Akufo as the new Chief Justice of the republic has been approved by Parliament.

She was approved after the Legislature unanimously approved the report of the Public Accounts committee of the house.

Justice Sophia Akufo was vetted for more than six hours by the appointments committee of the house.

Although Parliament does not usually sit on Mondays, today’s session was to enable members to consider the nomination of the Chief Justice and hasten the process to have her assume office as soon as possible.

The House had initially planned to host the nominee today for her vetting, but reconsidered the decision and announced last week Wednesday that it had to bring forward the date to avoid keeping the Chief Justice position vacant for long.

The first Deputy Speaker of Parliament and Chairman of the Appointments Committee, Joseph Osei-Owusu told pressmen on Wednesday that it was necessary to fast-track the vetting to ensure that Justice Akuffo when approved fills in the position ahead of the retirement of the acting Chief Justice, William Atuguba.

After the House approved her nomination, Speaker of Parliament, Rev Prof Mike Ocquaye congratulated her for her nomination and subsequent take over as the next Chief Justice of the land.

Justice Sophia Akufo would thus be sworn in by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who returned from his trip to Europe on Saturday.