I have no doubt at all that the rights of Ghana’s former Chief Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo has been flagrantly abused by President John Dramani Mahama and the so-called inquisition of a committee that was used to hound her out of office.
In years to come, Ghanaians would come to realize that possibly only as second to the killing of the High Court Judges in the early 1980s in Ghana, Torkornoo’s removal is one of the darkest examples in judicial administration in this country. And like the killing of the High Court Judges, it happened under an administration that is politically affiliated to the same political ideology under which the judges died.
For me, the truly frightful aspect of the whole thing, though, is that Supreme Court judges participated in the ignoble exercise, and given a choice, our Supreme Court decided to force her head back into the exercise.
That is frightful.
I am no admirer of Madam Torkornoo. She was one of nine Supreme Court Judges who decided that they would take away my rights as a Ghanaian to proceed to the Supreme Court on a matter and against a particular organization. I have every belief that any judge who can so flagrantly abuse the rights of a Ghanaian, to the level of abusing the 1992 Constitution and undermining their own oath of Office and taking taking away the constitutional right of a citizen to be able to proceed against an entity on a constitutional matter in the Supreme Court, has no business being a judge.
Being a judge, it is my belief, requires the personal discipline to follow where the law leads, no matter the personal squeamish, and when the bell tolled, Torkornoo and eight of her fellow Supreme Court judges failed, sadly. They were found wanting.
How I feel about Madam Torkornoo, however, should not take away the horror of what has been done to her, and the fact that if this can be done to the Chief Justice of the land, then the implication is that great fear and intimidation has been brought to bear on all judges in Ghana.
If you are proceeding in court in a matter in which this President has an interest, then you would be right to ‘look sharp’, as we say in local parlance.
I am dead certain, that the education (miseducation) and maltreatment meted out to Madam Gertrude Torkornoo by President John Dramani Mahama would serve as a great lesson to her personally, and that if we could turn back the clock, she would have a different position on a number of decisions she took during her tenure as Chief Justice. I have stated this before; when I placed Mr. John Dramani Mahama is her hands and that of her fellow judges, saying that he was ineligible to be President (he still is) she would have viewed the case differently, if she had the clairvoyance and forethought to see into the future.
I am dead certain, that today, she would have a different view to the view she and her fellow judges had when they decided that I am not a full Ghanaian deserving of the right to challenge the constitutionality of the aberration created by President Nana Akufo-Addo called the Office of Special Prosecutor.
But that water has long gone past under the bridge. The die is cast. As we say in akan; ‘apa ehu se akom’. It is past; what we can do is learn the lessons.
And one lesson she would learn, if given another opportunity, is that the battle to ensure rights, is a crucial battle. Which is why I encourage her not to believe that she is down and out, but to come back as a lawyer, a human rights lawyer, with the fire in her belly to take on those who would abuse the rights of others. She may never come back to the pinnacle as the Chief Justice, or even as a judge, but her insights into how these types of abuse, using the law she has spoken for all her life, could be crucial.
For those remaining on the Bench, one hopes that her experience would serve to remind them, every day, that those who appear before them for decision, all require fairness and evenness of approach.
I wish Madam Torkornoo well. She has been hard done by; but this is just a battle, not the whole war.
She can come back, renewed, rejuvenated and a better fighter.
(PERISCOPE DEPTH of 8th September, 2025. PERISCOPE DEPTH is published every Monday in the Daily Searchlight).
