Manhyia South MP Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah says Ghana’s former Chief Justice, Gertrude Torkornoo, is not merely challenging her removal from office but fighting against a powerful judicial establishment determined to silence her and control her legacy.
Baffour Awuah maintains that Torkornoo’s legal battle to overturn the outcome of an Article 146 removal process represents a broader struggle for judicial independence and fairness within the country’s highest courts.
“She appears alone in this battle, but posterity will appreciate that she wasn’t doing it for herself — she did it for Ghana,” Awuah said on The Forum on Asaase Radio on Saturday (18 October). “She is fighting against an establishment that wants to succeed her and so has an interest in her matter.”
Torkornoo has filed a judicial review application at the High Court seeking to halt the vetting and appointment of Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie as the next Chief Justice, while also asking the court to quash all proceedings of the Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang Committee, which investigated petitions for her removal.
Awuah argued that the system appears “determined to deny her justice,” citing an earlier instance where Torkornoo’s human rights case was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds.
He claimed that the process is compromised because Torkornoo’s successor, who once acted as Chief Justice and now holds the position substantively, controls key administrative levers of the judiciary — including which judges hear her case.
“When you lose your job, won’t you sue for unfair termination?” he asked. “Her fight is not just about herself, it’s about protecting the office of the Chief Justice and by extension, all superior court judges.”
“If she succeeds, a successor does not succeed,” Awuah said. “Her successor determines who sits on her matter and how quickly it is heard. That’s the establishment she is fighting.”
