Former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo has resigned from Ghana’s Council of State, sources familiar with the matter have informed Myjoyonline, bringing an end to her time on the country’s highest presidential advisory body.
Sophia Akuffo, who led the judiciary from 2017 to 2020, is understood to have submitted her resignation last year.
She has not attended any Council of State meetings since then.
Neither Akuffo nor the presidency has commented on the development. The circumstances surrounding her decision have not been publicly disclosed.
The Council of State is a constitutional body tasked with advising the president on matters of national importance.
Its membership includes elected and appointed representatives drawn from across the country.
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Her exit, however, follows a turbulent period during which she became a central figure in one of Ghana’s most consequential judicial crises.
When the Council of State voted in April 2025 on whether a prima facie case had been established against then Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, 30 out of 31 members voted in favour. Sophia Akuffo was the sole abstention, though the reasons for her decision were not publicly disclosed at the time.
Sophia Akuffo went further in the months that followed. She appeared voluntarily before the Article 146 committee established to investigate Torkornoo, at the request of the suspended Chief Justice herself, to present testimony in her defence.
She also went public with her misgivings about the entire process.
In an interview in September 2025, she criticised the proceedings that led to Torkornoo’s removal, arguing that the suspended Chief Justice did not receive a fair hearing.
She described the process as a “treason trial” and said it had weakened the judiciary. She further argued that the allegations against Torkornoo “lack the gravity that will lead to a grave outcome such as the removal of the head of an institution of justice.”
The remarks drew sharp backlash.
Former Director of the Ghana School of Law, Kwaku Ansa-Asare, accused Akuffo of breaching her oath of secrecy as a Council of State member, arguing that her statements indirectly revealed knowledge of confidential proceedings.
A member of the United Party, Solomon Owusu, announced plans to petition for her removal, accusing her of breaching the oath of secrecy and saying her actions could set a dangerous precedent. Solomon Owusu also criticised her for serving as a witness for Torkornoo before the Pwamang-led committee while still a member of the Council of State, which had participated in establishing the prima facie case.
President Mahama signed the warrant for Torkornoo’s removal on September 1, 2025.
Sophia Akuffo is one of Ghana’s most respected jurists, having served on the Supreme Court for over two decades before becoming the country’s 13th Chief Justice. She was only the second woman to hold the position, after Justice Georgina Theodora Wood.
Before her elevation to Chief Justice, she served as a judge of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and held several roles within the Ghanaian judiciary.
Her time on the Council of State had drawn public attention earlier in 2023, when she joined pensioner groups protesting aspects of the government’s domestic debt exchange programme, arguing that retirees should not bear an unfair burden in the country’s economic recovery effort.
No official announcement has been made regarding a replacement.
