Private legal practitioner Kwame Adofo says suspended Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo stands a good chance of securing an injunction at the Supreme Court to halt proceedings by the committee hearing her possible removal.
However, he emphasized that her success largely depends on the composition of the panel at the Apex Court, which he described as “currently divided.”
Speaking in an interview on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem, Mr. Adofo stated that if Acting Chief Justice Baffoe-Bonnie, Justice Yonny Kulendi, and Justice Amadu Tanko are excluded from the panel, Justice Torkornoo is likely to succeed.
“In terms of looking at it objectively, she may have a case. But at the moment, the Supreme Court panel is divided. It depends on the panel she will get. If it doesn’t include any of these three people, then she will win,” he said.
Justice Torkornoo is seeking an interlocutory injunction to stop all committee proceedings until the Supreme Court determines her case.
Her application also calls for Justices Gabriel Pwamang and Samuel Adibu-Asiedu to recuse themselves from the committee’s work. She argues that Justice Pwamang previously ruled in favour of one of the petitioners, Daniel Ofori, and therefore lacks the neutrality to chair the committee.
She also contends that Justice Adibu-Asiedu is not qualified to sit on the committee because he was part of the Supreme Court panel hearing an earlier injunction application related to the impeachment process.
Commenting on these points, Mr. Adofo described her concerns as legitimate.
“According to the rules, if there’s an appeal or further action on a ruling, the same judge cannot sit on it again. So now that the ruling has become a subject of petition, how can you preside on a case seeking her removal?
“If what I’m hearing is true, then Justice Pwamang should have stepped aside. He shouldn’t have even accepted the role,” he added.
ALSO READ: