Legal practitioner, Martin Luther Kpebu, has taken a swipe on those suggesting the removal of former Chief Justice, Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo, was politically motivated.
Contrary to the assertion that the grounds for her removal was trivial, since her predecessors had all been guilty of same, the renowned lawyer says once citizens overlooked it under a previous regime does not make legal now.
According to him, Ghanaians are becoming “wiser” and demanding accountability from duty bearers, the reason Madam Torkornoo’s conduct which might have been ignored under previous Chief Justices was taken on by others.
Reacting to an assertion by former Member of Parliament for Tarkwa Nsuaem, George Mireku Duker, that Torkornoo’s dismissal was political, during a discussion on the matter on TV3’s KeyPoints on Saturday, June 27, 2026, Counsel Kpebu maintained that neither President Mahama nor the committee that probed her prima facie case did anything outside the provisions in the Constitution.
He explained that the benefits for Article 71 holders as codified in the supreme laws of the land, together with other reports on the benefits of such public officers, do not state the Chief Justice can travel with either the husband or daughter on the purse of the State.
“So [Article] 71 says the President determines. So if you open the Boandoh report, Awurama, Greenstreet, all of those reports, what the President approved, did it include travel with your daughter or husband? Respectfully, no! That is where the illegality comes from.
“So, it doesn’t matter that the Judicial Council went and did an illegality. Sophia Akuffo benefited from it, Anin Yeboah benefited from it, and now Ghanaians are becoming wiser. We say ‘kwasea ani te a, na agorɔ agu’ (to wit when the fool wises up, the game is over),” he stated, explaining that Ghanaians have now become more enlightened in demanding accountability from leadership.
“Now we’ve become wiser, people are looking for accountability all over and they went and discovered it and some citizens brought it and the committee looked and said it is not borne out [of the Constitution],” he indicated.
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.”
Attorney-General urges Supreme Court to dismiss Torkornoo’s review application
