Don’t Give Money To Judges- Chief Justice Nominee Gertrude Torkornoo Tells Public

The Chief Justice nominee, Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkornoo has stated that the public should not under any means give money to any individual to give to a Judge to solicit favours in judgement.

She made this statement whilst addressing the issue of corruption, delayed justices and biased judgements in the Judiciary.

She further revealed that the Judicial Service has over 7,000 employees but only about 400 are full-time staff of the Judiciary.

“On the issue of corruption within the judiciary, I think that I have come to understand how these perceptions abound, as I said,  the judicial service has more than 7,000 employees, and only 400 or so are part of the judiciary,” she said

She further disclosed that it is mostly because of ignorance that makes people fall victim to perceptions that a Judge can change the course of Judgement by giving them money.

Justice Torkonoo stated that “for every 10 people who tell you give me money for a judge, you can be sure that 9 will likely go into that person’s pocket not to a judge, so please don’t give money to people to give to judges, because it’s their own market”

She also added that often times some staff of the Judicial Service fuel the whole perception of bribes to judges but these staffs tend to keep the money they take from the victims and that is an open market referred to as the “judicial predators”.

And as a result, even Judges who have achieved the status and reputation of being “Unbribe-able” find themselves in that corner.

“so there is a whole market, we call it “judicial predators”, there is a whole predatory group around our function”

“Anyone who presents themselves as able to take money on behalf of a judge gives that perception, and very often, we as judges including those of us with the reputation of being un-bribeable find ourselves in that corner”

The Chief Justice Nominee further added that the issue of Judicial Predators has not been left unattended but rather they (the Judiciary) try to address it in their study of ethics and that study involves both the judges and the staff.