Reconsider Justice Torkornoo’s Suspension – GBA

Efua Ghartey

 

National President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Efua Ghartey, has reiterated the call on President John Mahama to reconsider the suspension of Justice Gertrude Torkornoo as Chief Justice amidst the probing of three petitions calling for her removal.

Speaking a church service held in Accra in memory of the three High Court judges and a retired military officer who were abducted and murdered in 1982, she reiterated the call for insulating the judiciary from political and all other forms of interference.

According to her, an independent judiciary in its true sense is a bulwark for all who seek justice and should be jealously protected.

“We are confident that in the spirit of reconciliation, all the various calls for a reconsideration of the suspension of the Chief Justice in the circumstances, as it sets a poor precedent, will not go unheeded. We yearn for peace and we strive for justice,” Mrs. Ghartey noted.

Brutal Murder

Justices Fred Poku Sarkodee, Cecilia Koranteng-Addow and Kwadwo Agyei Agyepong as well as a retired Army Officer, Major Sam Acquah, were abducted on the night of June 30, 1982 during curfew hours.

Their bodies were found on July 1, 1982, in a state of decomposition at the Bundase Military Range in the Accra Plains where they were soaked with petrol and set on fire.

Since then, the GBA and the judiciary continue to mourn the three judges who have become the Martyrs of the Rule of Law, with monuments mounted in their memory at the forecourt of the Supreme Court.

CJ’s Suspension

Mrs. Ghartey, during a presentation, criticised the manner in which the processes initiated for the removal of Justice Gertrude Torkornoo as the Chief Justice are going, highlighting the need for fairness.

“It is hoped that any superior court judge will be well apprised of the entire process before ever being subjected to same, in the spirit of fairness. Rising to the defence of the Judiciary’s independence is the mandate of the Ghana Bar Association, and this is not personality driven,” Mrs. Ghartey pointed out.

Recalling the events leading to the abduction and murder of the three judges and the retired military officer, she highlighted the need to be careful as nation not to go down the slippery slope of endless revenge by justifying various acts with the refrain: ‘but others did that too.’

“On this day that we meet to honour the memory of the Martyrs of the Rule of Law, let us resolve as a nation to do ourselves proud and humbly walk away from settling scores endlessly as we are all one nation with one destiny.”

Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church, Ghana, the Most Rev. Prof. Johnson Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, who was the guest preacher, indicated in his sermon that the abduction and murder of the judges and the retired military officer can only be described as horrendous, senseless, wicked, callous and evil.

He hoped that the families, friends and loved ones whose worlds were shattered, have found in their heart to forgive the perpetrators, and that they have been able to move on with their lives.

He observed that the nation seems not to have learned anything from what he described as “dark chapters in our political and legal history because of the infantile and immature mentality that when we have cases before the law, there must be only one outcome; ours.”

He added that he is delighted that the Ghana Bar Association by instituting the Martyrs Day memorial service has helped to keep the memories of these victims of revolutionary injustice alive.

“However, that is not enough; we must rise up and be counted by pursuing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with God; for that is the way to rebuild our broken lives and help those deeply affected by this evil doing.”

BY Gibril Abdul Razak

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