Professor Kwaku Asare, a Democracy and Development Fellow at CDD-Ghana, is demanding the immediate removal of Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo from office.
The call for Justice Torkornoo’s removal follows her decision to submit five names to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for nomination to the Supreme Court.
The five judges are Justice Afia Serwaa Asare Botwe, the current judge presiding over the Ato Forson ambulance procurement trial, Justice Cyra Pamela Koranteng, Justice Edward Amoako Asante, Justice Eric Kyei Baffuour and Justice Angelina Mensah Homiah.
According to the Chief Justice, the workload at the apex court necessitated her action.
But the move has received criticisms despite support from the Majority in Parliament and other government officials.
In an interview, Prof. Asare was of the view that Justice Torkornoo’s move to present the names of five judges to the President was unconstitutional.
He feared that her decision would have dire implications for justice delivery in the country.
“The appointment, the letter, the suggestion should not even have happened. One other problem is you write that to the President, and the President says let me do it if the Chief Justice wants it, so that when I want something, she can also do it for me, and there are so many things wrong with this.
“It really breaks my heart that Justice Torkornoo has found herself in this dilemma, and it is with pain that I am saying she should be removed. But the constitution is the document that governs us and if you violate it, I am going to aggressively suggest that you should be removed,” he noted in an interview monitored by The Ghana Report on JoyNews.
Another group that publicly condemned the Chief Justice’s action was the Ghana Bar Association (GBA).
GBA believes the procedure used by the Chief Justice in her request was improper.