Presidential Staffer, Beatrice Annan, has rejected claims that the removal of former Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo was politically driven, stressing that the action had no connection to government’s priorities under President John Dramani Mahama.
She explained that when President Mahama assumed office in 2025, his administration had several urgent issues to address, but the Chief Justice’s removal was never part of its plans. “It is important to have people know that this removal was not political in any way,” she said.
Annan pointed out that public discussions should not be clouded by unfounded assumptions without credible evidence. She emphasised that it was misleading to attach political undertones to a process that stemmed from an independent petition before the judiciary.
“In fact, I happen to work at the presidency, and I can tell you that on assumption of power, if we had any preoccupation, or a major issue that we wanted to tackle, the removal of the CJ was not one of them. So, this is not something that was on the agenda of President Mahama, for which reason someone can say that it is politically manipulated”
Beatrice Annan, Presidential Staffer
The Presidential Staffer also noted that the petitioner behind the case, businessman Daniel Ofori, had a long-standing history of litigation involving Justice Torkornoo. She explained that this background was key in understanding the circumstances that eventually led to her removal.
According to Annan, Ofori had previously clashed with Torkornoo in court when she served as a High Court judge. His legal battles, including a case against Ecobank, travelled through the High Court, Court of Appeal, and Supreme Court.
“The petitioner is not a new person to the removed CJ. He is by far one of the richest businessmen we have in Ghana and a frequent litigant. Daniel Ofori later argued that given their history and certain comments made by Justice Torkornoo in other cases, she was likely to be biased against him in any future matter involving Ecobank”
Beatrice Annan, Presidential Staffer
“It cannot be that the NDC came to power, and within four months, it was on our agenda to remove the Chief Justice,” she added, maintaining that the narrative suggesting the NDC government deliberately engineered her removal was inaccurate.
Franklin Cudjoe’s Criticism
The controversy surrounding Justice Torkornoo’s removal intensified after the Article 146 Committee submitted its report.
The committee found her guilty of financial misconduct, ruling that she had wrongfully charged the Judicial Service for private trips in 2023, including journeys to Tanzania with her husband and to the United States with her daughter.
The report stated that per diem allowances were paid to family members, describing the conduct as a reckless dissipation of public funds that constituted stated misbehaviour under Ghana’s Constitution.
IMANI Africa’s President, Franklin Cudjoe, reacted strongly to the revelations, arguing that the misconduct was severe enough to warrant imprisonment in other countries.
“Listening to all the arguments, I found out that they also relied on the fact that she got herself an imprest, which actually she was not supposed to spend. The argument that she should have been guided by a finance officer, because she didn’t know, is neither here nor there”
Franklin Cudjoe, President of IMANI Africa
Cudjoe condemned the use of public funds for private purposes and dismissed attempts to trivialise the issue by attributing it to lack of administrative guidance. “Let’s dissociate politics from this. It gets me angry when I hear of it. She was the head of the judiciary; she knows the law. In other countries, she would have been in jail by now,” he contended.
The case continues to fuel debate over accountability and transparency within Ghana’s judicial system, with divided views on whether the removal was purely a constitutional matter or influenced by partisan considerations.
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