A political science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr. Joshua Jebuntie Zaato, has said the suspended Chief Justice, Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo, is not going to be reinstated.
Dr. Zaato thinks there is nothing else that would make the Madam Torkornoo be reinstated as Chief Justice looking at the circumstances surrounding the her situation.
Speaking on the KeyPoints on Saturday, May 31, 2025, Dr. Zaato noted that the suspended head of the judiciary can only return to her office to take her personal properties she might have left there, and not to continue serving as Chief Justice.
“I’m going to put it on record again, the Chief Justice is gone. She is gone. She is not going back to that office. Maybe she’s forgotten some books there, some purse or some things, she will go back and pick them. But she is gone. There is absolutely no circumstance or condition in this world that will let her reinstated,” he stated.
His comments follow the defeat suffered by the suspended CJ in her attempt to halt the proceedings by the five-member committee set to probe the three petitions seeking her removal from office.
On Wednesday, May 28, the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed her injunction application against the committee. The ruling came few moments after her supplementary affidavit was struck out unanimously by the Court.
Background
Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo, on May 21, 2025, filed an application at the Supreme Court seeking to restrain a committee set up by President John Dramani Mahama to investigate petitions seeking her removal from office.
In the suit, she requested an interlocutory injunction to halt all proceedings of the committee, pending the final determination of the case.
According to Court documents, the Chief Justice wanted the Supreme Court to issue an order restraining the six-member committee, composed of Justices Gabriel Scott Pwamang and Samuel Kwame Adibu-Asiedu, as well as Daniel Yao Domelevo, Major Flora Bazuwaaruah Dalugo, and Professor James Sefah Dziasah, from proceeding with any inquiry related to the petitions brought against her.
The application also sought to bar Justices Pwamang and Adibu-Asiedu from presiding or participating in any deliberations of the committee.
Further, the Chief Justice was also asking the court to suspend the operation of the warrant for her suspension issued by the President under Article 146(10) of the Constitution until a final determination is made on the matter.
Other legal actions taken by some individuals and a group at the Supreme Court against the processes so far by the Committee have been dismissed.
CJ’s Removal: Dr Zaato expresses shock at the silence of Association of Magistrates and Judges
