Former Director of the Ghana School of Law, Kwaku Ansa-Asare, has taken aim at suspended Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo for speaking publicly about the constitutional process initiated to remove her from office, insisting that such matters should not be tried in the court of public opinion.
His reaction follows Justice Torkornoo’s first public address since her suspension, during which she alleged serious constitutional violations and procedural irregularities in the Article 146 impeachment proceedings against her.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on June 25, Ansa-Asare criticised the Chief Justice’s decision to go public, arguing it appeared more like an emotional appeal than a legal defense.
“Ghanaians wanted to support her to go all in, and then at the end of the process, everyone will see whether the process was transparent. She has done more than 50% and now she is saying that the process was skewed, but she cannot resign — I realised that I have got to a corner, a place of no return, so public here I come for you to hear my side.
“See what the president is doing to me, and if I appear before the committee, you will see what they are doing — It is none of our business to bring the public into this controversy.”
He added: “The whole thing is such that the public has no say in this.”
Ansa-Asare went further to criticise Justice Torkornoo’s stewardship of the judiciary, saying her current situation is a reflection of the very system she has led for the past three years — a system, he claims, she failed to reform.
“What she is actually telling the whole nation is that she is supervising a broken justice delivery system, and for the first time, she is a victim of such a system. Now if she is a victim of the broken justice system in this country, ‘na who cause am’?” he questioned.
He continued: “She has been Chief Justice for three years now. Didn’t she know that she was supervising a broken system that ought to be fixed?
“If now she is saying she is a victim of a system that is supposed to deliver justice to aggrieved persons, and now she is an aggrieved person, and has been given a raw deal, her message to Ghanaians should rather be that the justice system is broken and needs fixing.”
Despite mounting criticism, Justice Torkornoo has remained firm in her decision not to resign. She has also indicated that she will continue to pursue all available legal avenues to challenge the impeachment proceedings.
