Tsatsu Tsikata, Baker-Vormawor and Thaddeus Sory
Three lawyers, Tsatsu Tsikata, Thaddeus Sory, Baker-Vormawor, have emerged as legal representatives for parties behind the petitions that led to the suspension of Chief Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo, according to aasaaseradio.com report.
Alongside them is private legal practitioner and activist Oliver Barker-Vormawor, who is representing Daniel Ofori, another petitioner.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Ayamga Yakubu Akolgo, who also petitioned for the Chief Justice’s removal, is representing himself in the probe.
The five-member committee probing the suspended Chief Justice, chaired by Supreme Court Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang, among Justice Samuel Kwame Adibu-Asiedu of the Supreme Court, Daniel Yaw Domelevo, a former Auditor-General, Major Flora Bazwaanura Dalugo of the Ghana Armed Forces and Professor James Sefah Dzisah, an academic from the University of Ghana, held its first in-camera session on Thursday, 15 May 2025, exactly 24 days after President John Dramani Mahama ordered her suspension in response to three separate petitions.
According to the report, at the outset of the hearing, the Chief Justice, through her legal team, requested that proceedings be held publicly in the interest of transparency, citing the public nature of the lead-up to the investigation. However, the request was denied by the committee, which invoked Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution, mandating that such proceedings be held in camera.
The committee has opted to follow the High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2004 (C.I. 47) as its guiding framework for the hearings, a decision that raised eyebrows among some legal observers seeking clarity on due process in such high stakes matters.
President Mahama suspended the Chief Justice on Tuesday, 22 April 2025, citing the receipt of three separate petitions that called for her removal over allegations of misconduct and incompetence. The suspension was made in accordance with Article 146(10) of the Constitution.
The first petition was submitted on 14 February 2025 by a group calling itself Shining Stars of Ghana. It was signed by Kingsley Agyei, who identified himself as the group’s chairman and convenor.
Daniel Ofori submitted the second petition on 17 March 2025, levelling 21 allegations of misconduct and four counts of incompetence, all linked to the Chief Justice’s administrative functions.
The third petition was filed by ACP Ayamga Yakubu Akolgo, a lawyer and senior police officer based at the National Police Headquarters in Accra, who also submitted his complaint on 14 February 2025.
AM/KA
