Deputy Minister-nominee for Communications, Digital Technology and Innovation, Mohammed A. Sukparu, has urged the suspended Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo to resign and stop what he describes as a desperate legal fight to salvage her image.
The Member of Parliament for Sissala West, in an interview on 3FM Sunrise on July 16, questioned the Chief Justice’s decision to seek redress at the ECOWAS Court of Justice, following her suspension and pending removal proceedings.
According to him, such a move undermines the very judiciary she once led.
“To protect her little reputation left, the suspended Chief Justice should resign and go. That would save her some reputation than running to the ECOWAS Court,” he said in an interview.
Sukparu expressed disbelief that the suspended Chief Justice, who once upheld the supremacy of Ghana’s Constitution, would now sidestep its processes in favour of a sub regional court.
“Why would she run away from her court, which she had been the leader of a few months ago?” Sukparu asked. “When she was shouting ‘the law is the law’ and now they are giving her the law, and she is running away to the ECOWAS Court to do what? Or the law isn’t the law again?”
Mohammed Adams Sukparu, comments come amid growing public debate over the suspended Chief Justice’s recent press conference and her reported demand for $10 million in compensation from the state over reputational harm.
Critics argue that she is turning a constitutional process into a personal crusade. While some civil society voices have defended her right to seek justice, others, like Sukparu, say her actions are eroding public confidence in Ghana’s judicial system and tarnishing her legacy.
The presidency suspended Justice Torkornoo earlier this year after a formal petition for her removal was accepted for consideration under Article 146 of the Constitution.
