The President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Efua Ghartey, has described the removal of Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo as unfair, despite acknowledging that the process followed was lawful.

Speaking at the 2025 Ghana Bar Association Conference in Wa on Monday, September 12, 2025, Efua Ghartey criticised the lack of procedural clarity in the constitutional process used to remove Justice Torkornoo from office.

According to a report by The Law Platform, the GBA President explained that although the procedure under Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution was followed, it remained unfair because it had no clearly established rules of procedure.

She clarified that the GBA’s initial opposition was not against the legality of the removal but rather the sketchy and opaque nature of the process.

Read: NPP’s Abronye DC Granted GH¢50,000 Bail

“The President of the Bar said the process for the removal is unfair when deployed in the removal of a Chief Justice. The President of the Bar made it quite clear that the position of the Bar… was not against the legality of the removal process but rather, the lack of procedural clarity,” the report noted.

Background to Justice Torkornoo’s Removal

Justice Gertrude Torkornoo was removed from office on September 1, 2025, by President John Dramani Mahama, acting in line with Article 146(9) of the Constitution.

The decision followed a petition by a Ghanaian citizen, Daniel Ofori, which was investigated by a five-member Committee of Inquiry chaired by Supreme Court Judge Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang.

The Committee recommended her removal, citing:

Unlawful expenditure of public funds: including travel with her husband to Tanzania and with her daughter to the United States, during which per diems were allegedly charged to the Judicial Service.

Breach of Article 296(a) and (b): in the transfer of a judge, which the Committee ruled amounted to “stated misbehaviour.”

Read: Judge Who Twice Remanded Abronye Retires – Report

The Committee concluded that these acts constituted “avoidable and reckless dissipation of public funds” and fell within the meaning of misbehaviour under Article 146(1) of the 1992 Constitution.

Justice Torkornoo’s removal marks a rare instance of a sitting Chief Justice being dismissed in Ghana’s Fourth Republic, sparking widespread debate within the legal and political fraternity.

Source: Ghanaweb.com