Former Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Aaron Ocquaye, says Chief Justice Gertrude Torkonoo should consider opting for a public hearing in the ongoing process seeking her removal from office.
According to him, the matter has already entered the public domain, and the Chief Justice has the right to reject a private process if she believes an open trial will better serve justice and transparency.
He argued that while some constitutional provisions permit in-camera hearings, those same laws also recognise the public as owners of justice and therefore cannot be entirely shut out of proceedings.
“If you have provided that justice is mine, then you cannot stop me from being part, seeing, observing what is going on with regard to a thing that belongs to me,” Prof Ocquaye said in an interview on Accra-based JoyNews.
He continued, “It may be said that it is there for the benefit of the Chief Justice on trial… but the matter is already in the public realm. If that is so, then the purposive interpretation should enable the beneficiary thereof to now say, I don’t want a secret trial.”
Prof Ocquaye stressed that the Chief Justice, like any other individual, should have the right to demand that Ghanaians witness the process if she believes she has nothing to hide.
President Mahama, on April 22, suspended Chief Justice Torkonoo with immediate effect after a prima facie case was established in three separate petitions seeking her removal.
Following advice from the Council of State and in accordance with Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution, a five-member committee of inquiry was set up to investigate the allegations.
