Suspended Chief Justice, Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo is asking the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Court of West Africa States (ECOWAS) to award her $10 million as compensation for damage to her reputation following her suspension by President John Dramani Mahama on Tuesday, April 22, 2025.
Justice Torkonoo also filed two applications at the Court seeking enforcement of her human rights over what she says was a blatant disregard to her right for a fair hearing guaranteed by both the Ghana’s 1992 constitution and the 1991 protocol of the Community Court of Justice.
The main application and the motion for provisional measures were filed and received at the registry of the Community Court of Justice in Abuja, Nigeria, on Friday, 4 July 2025.
It was filed by Femi Falana San of Falana and Falana Chambers in Nigeria, for and on behalf of the Chief Justice, Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo.
The applications have been served on Ghana through the Minister for Justice and Attorney General.
Ghana, per the rules of the Community Court of Justice, has five days to respond to the motion for provisional measures and 30 days to respond to the main application seeking the enforcement of the fundamental human rights of the Chief Justice.
Among others, the Chief Justice contends in her application that the violation of her right to fair hearing is grounded in the fact that she was not given a copy of either the supposed prima facie determination or the reasons for the making of a prima facie finding by the President before she was suspended by the President and the disciplinary committee formed.
The application further posits that the President’s purported prima facie determination, as communicated in the letter to CJ Torkornoo dated 22 April 2025, contained no reasons or justification for stating that a prima case has been established against her, and was entirely devoid of the elements of judicial or quasi-judicial reasoning expected under the Constitution.
“Fairness implies that the President, in making the prima facie determination with the Council of State, must specify the particular charges in respect of which a prima facie case is deemed to have been established and the reasons for the same.
“The President’s letter failed to do this. It simply stated that a prima facie has been found against the Applicant without more. To date, the Applicant does not know the reasons for the President stating that a prima facie case has been established against her.
“Yet a committee has been formed and is working. The President’s purported prima facie determination was no determination at all, as it failed to meet the standard of a judicious and objective assessment and, as such, was arbitrary and capricious,” the application of the Chief Justice read in part.
To this end, Chief Justice Torkornoo is seeking ten reliefs from the Community Court of Justice, including a “declaration that the suspension of the applicant (Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo) as the Chief Justice of Ghana by the President of Ghana on April 22, 2025 violated the Applicant’s human rights to a fair hearing guaranteed by Article 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights
The Chief Justice asked for declaration that the panel instituted by the President of Ghana to investigate and determine the allegations of misconduct against the applicant was not constituted to guarantee its independence and impartiality and as such has violated the applicant’s human right to fair hearing guaranteed by Article 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Justice Torkonoo is further seeking a declaration that the purported suspension of the applicant as the Chief Justice of Ghana by the President of Ghana constitutes a violation of her human right to fair equitable and satisfactory conditions guaranteed by Article 15 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
A declaration that the purported suspension of the applicant as the Chief Justice of Ghana by the President of Ghana has exposed her to public ridicule and odium locally and internationally and the said act constitutes a violation of her human right to dignity guaranteed by Article 5 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.”
A declaration that by subjecting the applicant to an illegal and unfair investigation and trial since April 2025, the Respondent has inflicted injuries on her professional standing and image, thereby ‘exposing her and her family to immeasurable public ridicule.”
Chief Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo was suspended from office by the President, John Dramani Mahama, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025.
The president’s actions, which are said to be grounded in Article 146 (10) of the 1992 constitution, were primarily inspired by three petitions that the president received seeking the removal of the Chief Justice from office.
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
