Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, the Majority Chief Whip in Parliament has urged the suspended Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo to allow the law to work.
According to Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, Gertrude Torkornoo is behaving in a manner suggestive of presumed guilt.
Speaking on Face to Face on Channel One TV with Umaru Sanda Amadu, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor stated, “I think that she should rather allow [the law to work]. She is acting in a manner that is presumptive of guilt”.
His comment follows, the Chief Justice crying out about what she is going through at the hands of the Committee’s investigating petitions for her removal.
According to a supplementary affidavit filed with the Supreme Court as part of her legal challenge Chief Justice Torkornoo alleges violations of her fundamental rights in the ongoing impeachment proceedings against her.
In her supplementary affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on Monday, May 26, 2025, the Chief Justice stated, “Other developments, like the denial of access into the hearing room for my husband and children, searches on my body, denial of access to telephones and laptops for myself and my lawyers (even though counsel for petitioners have access to their phones and laptops), and the conduct of the hearing itself in a high-security zone at the premises of the Castle, Osu, show a deliberate effort to subject me to mental torture and degrading treatment in violation of my fundamental rights”.
According to CJ Torkornoo, “They want to break me. What I am going through is not even meted out to persons accused of treason”
She added, “This Honourable Court is the only shield between me and an unconstitutional assault on the office I hold and the independence it symbolises. Only you can stop this assault on judicial independence.”
“I have been treated in a manner not meted out even to persons on trial for treason,”
Suspended CJ Torkornoo further revealed that she has not been informed of the legal basis on which a prima facie case was determined, nor of the specific allegations she is required to answer.
“How can I defend myself when I don’t even know what I’m defending against?” she asked.
“All Article 146 proceedings, with the exception of the one I am being subjected to, had hitherto been held in a judicial facility, specifically the Courts Complex. The location of proceedings affecting me to a cordoned high-security facility boggles the mind”, she noted.
She further described the process as a “mockery of justice and a ruse to unjustifiably remove me from office as the Chief Justice.”
“On 23rd May 2025, notwithstanding receipt of the processes filed in the Supreme Court, including the application for interlocutory injunction, the members of the committee indicated their resolve to proceed with the conduct of the inquiry”, she added.
“This is bigger than me. What is at stake is the security of tenure for every justice of the Superior Courts of Judicature. What is under threat is the very soul of our Constitution”, she warns.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has struck out the injunction application filed by suspended Chief Justice, Justice Gertrude Torkornoo.
