Vincent Assafuah is the Old Tafo MP
Ghana’s democracy has been dealt a devastating blow with the removal of former Chief Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo.
Her ouster, announced on September 1, 2025, has sparked fury across the country, with critics describing it as a ‘constitutional travesty’ and a direct assault on judicial independence.
FULL TEXT: Read leaked termination letter of Justice Torkornoo
In a statement issued by the Old Tafo MP Vincent Ekow Assafuah, he accused the President of weaponizing the Constitution to achieve a political end.
“The so-called prima facie case that triggered this impeachment has never been shown to the Chief Justice or her lawyers. This is a constitutional scandal,” the statement said.
The grounds for her removal, misuse of funds, transfer of staff, and recommending promotions, were dismissed as flimsy and unlawful by the lawmaker.
“If a Chief Justice cannot recommend promotions or transfer officers, then the office has been stripped of its very meaning,” the statement added.
It will be recalled that Justice Torkornoo, who refused to resign, described the proceedings of the committee that probed the petitions seeking her removal as secretive, humiliating, and fatally flawed.
“Resignation would have legitimized a flawed process,” she declared defiantly.
Her removal has drawn condemnation from the Ghana Bar Association, the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, and respected voices like veteran journalist Elizabeth Ohene, who likened the pain of the announcement to the chilling memories of murdered judges in 1982. Even Supreme Court Justice Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu warned the process had been reduced to “no more difficult than removing a class prefect.”
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“This is not about Gertrude Torkornoo. This is about the soul of our judiciary. Ghana must rise to defend the Constitution,” the statement concluded.
