The removal of former Chief Justice (CJ), Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo, was hinged on a precedent set by herself as former head of the Judiciary, legal practitioner, Martin Luther Kpebu, has averred.
According to him, the Supreme Court’s ruling chaired by the former CJ on the payment of salaries for spouses of the President and Vice President makes her conduct illegal, making any assertions that suggest her removal was politically motivated incongruous with the law.
Reacting to the claims, Martin Kpebu cited the Abronye and Dafeamekpor cases, saying spouses of Article 71 office holders are not entitled to state salaries or allowances.
“…and thankfully for us, even before Torkornoo was taken to court, Abronye DC’s case, Torkornoo held that they cannot give the spouses of the President and the Vice President [salaries or allowances]. So she had earlier ruled that it is not borne out by [Article] 71,” he said on the KeyPoints show on TV3 on Saturday, June 27, 2026.
“So, the committee was simply adopting precedent that Torkornoo herself had set up,” he stressed, adding that it is an “insult to millions of Ghanaians when you come and say spending over GHC300,000 is a trifling.”
The Supreme Court has declared an approval by Parliament saying formal salaries and allowances should be paid for the spouses of the President and Vice President unconstitutional, null, and void.
The controversy followed recommendations made by the Prof. Yaa Ntiamoah-Baidu-led Presidential Emoluments Committee which suggested that spouses of the President and the Vice should receive regularised monthly salaries equivalent to Cabinet Ministers or Deputy Ministers.
Parliament subsequently adopted and approved the report, authorising payments to be drawn directly from the Consolidated Fund to that effect. The decision triggered intense public outcry and legislative debate across Ghana, where critics argued that the state was overextending its financial obligations to individuals who were not elected public officials.
The legal dispute escalated to the apex court through two separate lawsuits filed by Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, the Member of Parliament for South Dayi, and Kwame Baffoe Agyei, popularly known as Abronye, the Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
They sought declarations that the Emoluments Committee and Parliament lacked the constitutional mandate to allocate official state salaries to presidential spouses under Article 71 of the 1992 Constitution.
The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision delivered by a seven-member panel chaired by the then Chief Justice, Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo, struck down the salary structure, declaring it as unconstitutional, null, and void.
The discussion follows the dismissal of all seven claims filed by the former Chief Justice, Gertrude Torkornoo, at the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, against the Republic of Ghana.
This was announced by Deputy Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dr. Justice Edem Srem-Sai.
The Court had previously dealt with preliminary objections and procedural applications in the case, which stemmed from the former Chief Justice’s challenge to her suspension and removal from office, which she alleges violated her rights under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Dr Srem-Sai, in a Facebook post on Wednesday, June 24, disclosed that the regional court also declined to award the US$10 million in damages sought by the former Chief Justice.
According to him, the court found no basis for compensation after concluding that Ghana had not infringed any of the rights cited in the application.
Quoting the court’s decision, the Deputy Attorney-General stated that, “in light of the Court’s conclusions that Ghana has not violated any of the Applicant’s rights under the African Charter as alleged, the Court makes no decision on reparations.”
