President John Mahama should be patting himself on the back for fulfilling a campaign promise.
He said he would get rid of Justice Gertrude Torkornoo as Chief Justice during his campaign trail. He has made it regardless of the oddity of the process and flimsiness of the reasons for the obnoxious action.
It all started when he let out his angst over the lady’s rather difficult questions during the election petition hearing and above all a perception that she is NPP-aligned.
The law is the law stands tall and will continue to do so because it is etched in concrete. No matter how many days it would take the truth will out one day and those who sought to present facts as otherwise shall pay for their arbitrary actions.
For God’s sake why would a President overact with the executive powers in a way which abuses the separation of powers?
Of course there are checks and balances to regulate the exercise of the powers of their departments or arms of government but what happened in the case of the matter under review leaves much to be desired.
The Chief Justice after her ordeals which included the invasive searches she endured when she appeared before the committee and the denial of her family members to even accompany her not forgetting the ghostly flashes of her uncle Maj Sam Acquah had to be ignominiously dismissed by the President. The kangaroo sittings were held at a location where the decision to murder her uncle Maj Acquah was taken. She lived with him.
She was removed from office over the per diem she enjoyed with members of her family as contained in the conditions of service of the judicial service.
Not even the filing of statements by her lawyer Ayikoi Otoo were entertained. That would have caused a delay in making the announcement about her ouster something the anxious President would not have.
So horrible is the reason behind the President’s action that we are constrained to ask whether it was the Chief Justice herself who determined the allowances she enjoyed during her travels.
The politically exposed members of the committee speaks volumes about the quality of their findings. Whatever happened to the other two unfinished probe?
Her returning to the vaults monies she did not spend, an unusual gesture by a public officer, did not prompt the committee and her accusers at large to rethink their impression.
It is worrisome that the petition against the chairman of the committee by a family did not cause the President to think twice about the composition because it suited the removal project.
Resetting the judiciary as he said during a programme with NDC lawyers in the Volta Regional capital, Ho has come to pass. As for the repercussions it shall come in varied forms. These shall be anything but in the interest of the good of justice administration in the country.
Madam Sophia Akkufo a former Chief Justice and a Council of State member might have abstained during the voting period of the prima face stage of the hullabaloo, the lone one, she has kicked against the removal action and cleared her troubled conscience. For those who took this action…from the executive to the committee members they will one day apologise to their compatriots for doing this damage to the judiciary.
And to the former Auditor General, we wish him to live with his conscience.
