Minority Leader Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin has alleged that Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie and other Supreme Court justices took part in what he called a grand conspiracy to remove former Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo.
The Effutu Member of Parliament made the allegation in a media interview in Accra and called for Torkornoo’s reinstatement. Afenyo-Markin rested his case on the conduct of the Article 146 committee that recommended her dismissal, arguing that it completed its report after hearing only one of three petitions against her.
He offered no evidence of coordination among the justices he named, and the allegation of conspiracy remains his assertion rather than an established fact. The Minority Leader was asked about the circumstances of the removal and answered without hedging.
“There was a grand conspiracy. Oh, yes. I say so. I have not missed words on that. My Lord Chief Justice Baffoe-Bonnie was part of the grand conspiracy against his predecessor, Gertrude Torkornoo. It was a grand conspiracy. Because he wanted to be the Chief Justice”.
Minority Leader Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin
He indicated that more would emerge in time, saying the true story would one day be told, and that those involved knew what had taken place. Baffoe-Bonnie was not a member of the committee that inquired into the petitions. He served as Acting Chief Justice following Torkornoo’s suspension and was subsequently appointed to the substantive office.
The committee that heard one petition of three
The factual core of Hon. Afenyo-Markin’s complaint concerns how the inquiry concluded. “Three petitioners; you finished the hearing of one petitioner. The other two were pending. Yet you completed your report and recommended the dismissal of Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkornoo as a Chief Justice,” he said.
That account matches the public record. Three petitions were filed against Torkornoo, by businessman Daniel Ofori, a group called Shining Stars and a police official, Ayamga Yakubu Akolgo.
The five-member committee chaired by Supreme Court Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang submitted a report based on the Ofori petition alone on 1 September 2025, and President John Dramani Mahama removed Torkornoo under Article 146(9) that same day.
The committee found that grounds of stated misbehaviour had been established, citing unlawful expenditure of public funds on travel for her husband and daughter, abuse of discretionary power in a staff transfer, and interference in judicial appointments.
A question directed at the committee chairman
Afenyo-Markin addressed part of his remarks to Justice Gabriel Pwamang, who chaired the inquiry, and framed it as a question about fairness rather than law. “My Lord, if they did that to you, how would you feel?” he said.
He then made a further claim about the succession. “Today, as my Lord Baffoe-Bonnie is exiting, I am aware you are also lobbying to become the next Chief Justice. How would you feel if somebody did this to you?” Justice Pwamang has not responded publicly to the allegation, and there is no independent confirmation that he is seeking the office.
The Minority Leader repeated a demand he says he first made at a party demonstration. “I said it at our last demonstration, the last time, that I don’t see why that woman will not be reinstated. She has to be reinstated,” he said.
He also placed the episode in a broader complaint about how Ghanaians treat one another, saying the country is comfortable with unfairness, and that Supreme Court judges were unfair to their colleague.
Reinstatement would require a legal route the Constitution does not obviously supply. Article 146(9) obliges the President to act on a committee’s recommendation, and the removal warrant issued on that basis has not been set aside.
Where the litigation stands
Justice Torkornoo filed a motion for judicial review at the Accra High Court in October 2025 seeking to halt the vetting and appointment of Baffoe-Bonnie and to quash the Article 146 proceedings, the three grounds cited by the Pwamang committee and the presidential warrant that removed her.
She also took the case to the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice, which dismissed all her claims against Ghana. That court held it lacked jurisdiction to reassess the evidence the committee considered, and that questions about whether committee members took the required oaths fell to Ghanaian courts.
Those outcomes leave the domestic proceedings as the remaining avenue, and no court has yet found the removal process unlawful. The Minority Leader’s remarks push the confrontation further, moving from a dispute over judicial administration to a direct allegation of misconduct against named justices.
Neither the Judicial Service nor the Chief Justice’s office had responded at the time of filing
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