President John Dramani Mahama, on the advice of the Chief Justice of the Republic, Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, has dismissed a petition submitted to him seeking the removal of Justice Yonny Kulendi from office as a Justice of the Supreme Court.
The decision of President Mahama is contained in a letter signed by Dr Callistus Mahama, Secretary to the President, dated 4 December 2025, and addressed to the petitioner, Daniel Marfo Ofori-Atta.
The decision
“I have the Instructions of His Excellency the President to respond to your petition dated 30 September 2025 on the above matter.
“In accordance with Article 146(3) of the 1992 Constitution, His Excellency the President duly referred the petition to His Lordship, Justice Paul Baffoe-Bornnie, Chief Justice, on 20″ October 2025, to determine whether the petition discloses a prima facie case,” Dr Mahama’s letter to the petitioner read.
“By a letter dated 2 December 2025, the Chief Justice informed His Excellency the President that no prima facie case had been established by the petition to warrant any further investigation. The Chief Justice’s letter states as follows:
“In the circumstances, the Petitioner’s own evidential material undermines and collapses the factual foundation of the allegations.
“When compared against the sworn testimony of Mr. Jakpa, the petition’s claim that Justice Kulendi abused his office to secure bail for his cousin and that he sought to inappropriately influence the outcome of the case, is exposed as a clear distortion of the record and fails to disclose any evidentiary basis upon which a prima facie finding can be properly grounded.
“In conclusion, it is my determination that this petition fails to meet the evidential threshold required to establish a prima facie case under Article 146(3) of the Constitution. Accordingly, I find that no prima facie case has been established against Justice Yonny Kulendi by the Petitioner,” the letter of the Secretary to the President further read.
“In view of the Chief Justice’s determination that the constitutional threshold under Article 146(3) has not been met, no further steps are required in respect of your petition. The matter is therefore concluded,” President Mahama’s letter to Daniel Marfo Ofori-Atta concluded.
Background
Daniel Marfo Ofori-Atta petitioned President John Mahama on 2 October 2025 for the removal of Justice Yonny Kulendi as a Supreme Court judge.
His petition was submitted to the President after he filed a similar petition with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, seeking an investigation into Justice Kulendi and his cousin, Richard Jakpa, over alleged attempts to interfere with the administration of justice.
“The petition that I have filed at the CID headquarters is not the only petition that I have filed. I have also invoked the necessary and relevant provisions of the Ghanaian constitution.
“I have petitioned the president for the removal of Justice Yonny Kulendi as justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana,” he said in an interview.
The petition stems from the high-profile trial in the case of the Republic v Cassiel Ato Forson & 2 others, in which Jakpa, who currently serves as the director of operations at the National Security Secretariat, was the third accused.
Ofori-Atta claims that Justice Kulendi attempted to obstruct justice in a manner that sinned against the code of conduct expected of a Supreme Court judge.
His actions, Marfo Ofori-Atta argues, constitute stated misbehaviour, rendering Justice Kulendi unfit to occupy the high office of a justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana.
This new petition sets the stage for another clash between the executive arm of the government and the judiciary, following President John Dramani Mahama’s removal of Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo last month.
Justice Emmanuel Yonny Kulendi, together with Professor Henrietta J A N Mensa-Bonsu, was sworn into office as a justice of the Supreme Court by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on 26 May 2020.
Their appointment to the Supreme Court followed successful vetting by the appointments committee of Parliament on 11 and 12 May, and approval by Parliament on 20 May 2020.
Justice Yonny Kulendi has declared in the past that he believes he was conscripted to serve as a justice of the Supreme Court, as he never planned to be a judge from the start of his career as a lawyer.
He made this assertion at the law faculty of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) during an engagement with law students of the faculty, dubbed “Conversation with a Judge, on 10 November 2022.
