Former Chief Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo, was sacked from office by President John Dramani Mahama in accordance with Article 146(9) of the 1992 Constitution.

Her removal on September 1, 2025, followed the President’s receipt of the official report of the Pwamang Committee constituted under Article 146(6) to probe three petitions submitted by Daniel Ofori, Ayamga Akolgo and Shining Stars.

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The Committee after their investigations into the petitions and evidence presented to them, established grounds of stated misbehaviour, hence its recommendation for her removal from office.

This GhanaWeb article takes a look at the profile of Justice Torkornoo:

Justice Gertrude Torkornoo was appointed by the former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as Chief Justice of Ghana in 2023.

She assumed the role, succeeding the former Chief Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah who retired from the bench in May, 2023.

She was the third female Chief Justice in the history of Ghana, after Justices Georgina Theodora Wood and Sophia Akuffo.

Justice Torkornoo is also an author. Formerly a judge of the Appeals Court, she was nominated as a Supreme Court Judge in November 2019 and vetted on December 10, 2019.

She was sworn in on December 17, 2019. Aside from law, she has authored books, plays, academic essays, articles, and presentations.

Gertrude Torkornoo hails from Winneba in the Central Region of Ghana. She was born on September 11, 1962 in Cape Coast.

She had her secondary school education at Wesley Girls' High School for her Ordinary Level Certificate and Achimota School for her Advanced Level Certificate.

She had her tertiary education at the University of Ghana and completed the Ghana School of Law in 1986.

Prior to joining Fugar & Co., a law firm in Accra as a pupil associate, Torkornoo worked as a volunteer at the FIDA Legal Aid Service and had her internship at Nabarro Nathanson in London. She returned to the firm (Fugar & Co., a law firm) in 1994 to become its director.

In January 1997, she became a Managing Partner at Sozo Law Consult until May 2004 when she was appointed a Justice at the High Court of Ghana. She worked as a High Court judge until October 2012 when she was elevated to the Court of Appeal.

She had been a Justice of the Court of Appeal until her nomination for the role of Supreme Court Judge in November 2019. She was sworn into office on December 17, 2019.

Prior to her appointment as Supreme Court justice, Torkornoo has held a number of leadership positions, some of which include; Supervising Judge of Commercial Courts, Chair of the Editorial Committee of Association of Magistrates and Judges, Chief Editor for the development of Judicial Ethics Training Manual, Vice-Chair of the E-Justice Steering/Oversight Committee and Vice-Chair of the Internship and Clerkship Programme for the Judiciary.

She is also a Faculty Member of the Judicial Training Institute and a member of the Governing Board of the Judicial Training Institute.

Justice Torkornoo is also a poet. She has two anthologies to her name - The Child and The Rainbow, and The Wise Still Hear the Birds – as well as several plays.

According to africanwomeninlaw.com, Justice Torkornoo is a staunch Christian and she worships with the International Central Gospel Church, Calvary Temple.

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She established the Sozo Foundation, a ministry dedicated to evangelism through the publication and distribution of tracts and other literary works.

She is also a key member of Aglow International and a board member of Theovision International, a ministry that translates the Bible and creates audio Bibles in African languages.

MAG/VPO

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