Prominent legal practitioner, Thaddeus Sory has weighed in on the ongoing debate surrounding the removal process of suspended Chief Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkonoo.
He asserts that the Chief Justice has no legal standing to challenge proceedings initiated under Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution.
His comments follow Justice Torkonoo’s first media engagement since the start of the impeachment process, during which she criticised the secrecy of the procedure and defended her request for the hearings to be held in public.
She argued that the allegations against her do not involve matters of national security or public safety.
Responding in a pointed Facebook post, Mr. Sory wrote: “Put it in your final address to the committee. Contortions, Distortions, and bad law. No locus standi in Article 146 proceedings. That is the law.”
His remarks imply that under Article 146, the Chief Justice—being the subject of the petition—has no legal basis to interfere with or contest the structure of the removal process, which is managed by a committee appointed by the President, based on advice from the Council of State and, in other cases, the Chief Justice.
Meanwhile, the suspended Chief Justice, Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo, firmly stated that she will not resign from her position despite facing an impeachment process initiated under Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution.
“Let me assure everybody that I do not seek to cling to a title or position. However, as a lawyer of 38 years standing, a Judge of 21 years standing, and Chief Justice of Ghana who has served in the rule of law all of my working life, I consider it my onerous duty and obligation to speak up concerning the administration of justice in this country.
“The situation I have been confronted with has shown me a model of injustice that I would never have thought possible if I had not been exposed to it. This is why, despite great personal discomfort, I have decided to marshal every effort, in law and leadership, to answer to this situation.”