Mr John Darko, the Legal Counsel to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Minority Caucus in Parliament, on Tuesday condemned the removal of Chief Justice (CJ) Gertrude Torkornoo by President John Dramani Mahama.
In a statement signed by Mr Darko, he said “This flagrant assault on the judiciary by the head of the executive branch of the government brings into sharp focus the destruction of the state institutions by this administration.”
The statement said the Minority Caucus believed the removal of the Chief Justice had nothing to do with legal constitutional process but rather “the resident’s desire to control all the levers of government.”
It said: “Ghana thus joins the unenviable group of nations like Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, which have removed their chief justices for political purposes.”
“From the President’s address to National Democratic Congress (NDC) lawyers and the several claims by the NDC’s Chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketia, to the effect that Justice Torkornoo and the Chair of the Electoral Commission must be removed at all cost during the 2024 campaign, this removal of the CJ forms part of the grand agenda of the NDC to bastardise the institutions of State, to enable them to run the country as a gangster town,” he said.
Mr Darko, also the NPP Member of Parliament for Suame, referred to the situation as “a judicial coup,” calling on all well-meaning Ghanaians, including the revered chiefs, clergy, and the media, to join hands to condemn it in no uncertain terms.
President Mahama on Monday, September 1, 2025, in accordance with Article 146(9) of the 1992 Constitution, removed the Chief Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey TorkoRnoo from office with immediate effect.
A statement issued by Mr Felix Kwakye Ofosu, the Presidential Spokesman and Minister of State in charge of Government Communications, said the decision followed receipt of the report of the Committee constituted under Article 146(6) of the 1912 Constitution, to inquire into a petition submitted by a Ghanaian citizen, Mr Daniel Ofori.
It said after considering the petition and the evidence, the Committee found that the grounds of state misbehaviour under Article 146(1) had been established and recommended the Chief Justice’s removal from office.
Under Article 146(9), the President is required to act in accordance with the committee’s recommendation.
