Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie is the senior judge of the Supreme Court
Legal practitioner Martin Kpebu has indicated that Supreme Court Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, the most senior judge on the bench, is expected to step in as Acting Chief Justice following the suspension of Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo.
According to Kpebu, this appointment would see Justice Baffoe-Bonnie temporarily assume leadership of the judiciary until a substantive Chief Justice is named.
Following consultations with the Council of State and in accordance with Article 146(6) of the Constitution, President John Dramani Mahama has concluded that there is sufficient basis to proceed with three petitions filed against Chief Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo.
As a result, the Chief Justice has been formally suspended from her duties pending further action.
Speaking in an interview with Accra-based TV3 on April 22, 2025, Martin Kpebu explained that Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, as the most senior judge on the Supreme Court, is conventionally the candidate to take over as Acting Chief Justice.
“There’s a specific provision for it in the constitution. It is explicitly written that, in the absence of the Chief Justice, the most senior justice of the Supreme Court takes over. So it means that Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie is the Acting Chief Justice, there can be no two ways about that,” he said.
Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, born September 11, 1962, in Cape Coast, Ghana, was sworn in as Ghana’s Chief Justice on June 12, 2023, by then-President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, becoming the third female in the role.
She joined the judiciary in 2004, rose to the Supreme Court in 2019, and has driven judicial reforms like the E-Justice system. Educated at the University of Ghana and abroad, she is also an author and poet.
FKA/MA
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