Former Director of the Ghana School of Law, Kwaku Ansa-Asare, has said that the removed Chief Justice Gertrude Torkonoo’s confrontational approach during the removal process made it difficult for her to be reinstated.
Speaking on The Pulse on JoyNews, he said her conduct worsened her case.
“The CJ did not give herself any chance to also ever be heard appropriately. I mean the confrontational attitude she took made it impossible for her to resume her official duties. She was so abrasive, taking the government here and there, going to ECOWAS,” he said.
He said that the issue was a constitutional matter that required cooperation rather than resistance.
“This simple constitutional matter of cooperating with the committee so that at the end of the day, we will all be living witnesses as to whether there was any merit in the petitions at all,” he explained.
He added that if the Chief Justice herself could not appreciate the laid-down processes, it undermined her claims of rights violations.
“If you allege that your constitutional rights are being violated, and you yourself as the head of the judiciary do not understand the ramifications of the Chief Justice removal process, you shoot yourself wrongly in the foot,” Mr Ansa-Asare asserted.
He noted that the constitution had been followed and insisted there was no need for disappointment.
“I don’t think that we should be sad about it; we should be happy that the constitution is working. This is a democracy, and if the President has to act, every step the President takes, he must act in accordance with the constitution.
So far, I am yet to be convinced that the President has contravened the constitutional processes,” he added.
President John Mahama has removed the Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo from office with immediate effect on grounds of stated misbehaviour.
This follows recommendations from a constitutional committee set up under Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution.
The decision comes barely hours after the President received the report of a committee constituted under Article 146(6) to inquire into a petition filed by Ghanaian citizen Daniel Ofori. That was only one out of the three petitions.