Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, Ranking Member of Parliament’s Defence and Interior Committee, has sharply criticised President John Dramani Mahama over the suspension of Chief Justice Gertrude Araba Torkornoo, describing the move as driven by personal animosity rather than constitutional justification.
In a post on social media platform X on Wednesday, April 23, Rev. Fordjour labelled the suspension as a “politically motivated act” that threatens the independence of the judiciary.
The Chief Justice was suspended on Tuesday, April 22, following recommendations from the Council of State after multiple petitions were submitted seeking her removal. However, Rev. Fordjour dismissed the grounds for her suspension as “unconvincing” and “dangerous for the future of Ghana’s democracy.”
“Yes, you may not be the first President to go down in history as the one who removed a Chief Justice on grounds of personal dislike. But that’s certainly not a noble and enviable precedent to follow either,” he wrote.
He further accused President Mahama of seeking to “entrench political control over independent institutions,” warning that such actions undermine the principles of good governance and the rule of law.
“The independence of the judiciary is paramount to the integrity of our democratic pursuit,” Fordjour asserted, adding that the move appears designed to replace the Chief Justice with a politically loyal appointee.
The MP urged civil society organisations, religious leaders, the diplomatic community, and citizens to speak out against what he described as a “vindictive and destructive course.”
Rev. Fordjour also linked the suspension to what he called a broader pattern of troubling actions under Mahama’s current tenure, including “unfair mass job terminations, violent political intimidation, unresolved power outages, and illicit activities such as drug trafficking and money laundering.”
See the post below:
Your Excellency Mr President, under your watch, as part of your reset agenda, politically-motivated witch-hunting has seen the mass termination of thousands of jobs in the public sector. As if that was not enough, your brazen determination to remove the Chief Justice reveals…
— John Ntim Fordjour MP (@NtimFordjour) April 23, 2025
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