Private legal practitioner Kwame Akuffo has rejected calls for suspended Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo to resign over the ongoing hearing on three petitions submitted to President John Dramani Mahama for her removal.

Speaking in a recent interview with journalist Beatrice Adu, the lawyer pointed out that he sides with Justice Torkornoo’s decision not to resign because of its implications.

He argued that the embattled Chief Justice’s resignation would mean that she knows the allegations in the three petitions for her removal are factual and would eventually catch up with her.

“To resign is to concede that you will not fight the issue, and generations that would come after us would say that she knew that she couldn’t fight the charges made against her, and that is why she bowed out honorably,” he said.

“And therefore, her position that she would fight till the last drop of sweat is respectable... I’m not too sure that even the Chief Justice wants to be restored at this stage, especially when she is in conflict with the court itself,” he added.

The private legal practitioner also stated that the 1992 Constitution of Ghana does not give the Chief Justice the option to walk away before the ongoing hearing ends.

“There are ongoing proceedings as well, and she has not reached the statutory retirement age, so she cannot resign—they are ongoing. Because there are ongoing proceedings, she has to go through them. She doesn’t have the option of resignation, constitutionally,” he said.

President John Dramani Mahama suspended Justice Torkornoo following the determination of a prima facie case in the three petitions for her removal by the Council of State.

The president set up a five-member committee chaired by Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang to probe the petitions for Justice Torkornoo’s removal.

The suspended Chief Justice has filed a number of suits in the Supreme Court and the High Court challenging her suspension, but all these legal actions have been thrown out.

BAI/GA

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