The Ranking Member of Parliament’s Defence and Interior Committee, Rev. Ntim Fordjour, has launched an attack on President John Mahama, accusing him of suspending the Chief Justice, Her Ladyship Justice Gertrude Esaaba Torkornoo, simply because he dislikes her.
In a strongly worded statement shared on social media, Rev. Fordjour described the reasons given for the Chief Justice’s suspension as “far-fetched” and unconvincing.
He warned that the President’s actions are dangerous and could destroy the democratic foundations of the country.
“Yes, you may not be the first President to go down in history as the one who removed your Chief Justice out of personal dislike. But that’s not a legacy anyone should be proud of,” Fordjour remarked.
He believes the real goal is to replace Justice Torkornoo with someone who will blindly follow political orders.
He stressed that the independence of the judiciary is crucial for democracy and warned that replacing a sitting Chief Justice with a politically compliant one is an assault on good governance.
“This is a dangerous path for Ghana,” he stated.
Rev. Fordjour also called on civil society groups, faith-based organizations, diplomats, and all concerned citizens to rise up and resist what he described as the President’s “vindictive and destructive” agenda.
He further accused President Mahama of hiding behind his so-called “reset agenda” to engage in mass political witch-hunting, including unfair job terminations, armed raids on political opponents, and more. To him, all these actions are dragging Ghana backward.
“This Chief Justice issue must not be taken lightly. We must stop this attack on our democracy before it’s too late,” he concluded.
Read his full statement 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 volumes about the real intent behind your reset agenda.
Yes, you may not be the first President to go down in history as the President who removed his Chief Justice on grounds of personal dislike.
But that’s certainly not a noble and enviable precedent to follow either. All the reasons cited as basis for prima facie for the suspension of Her Ladyship Justice Gertrude Esaaba Torkornoo are farfetched.
The independence of the Judiciary is paramount to the integrity of our democratic pursuit. Your palpable pursuit of removing the Chief Justice and to replace her with a politically-compliant one, clearly affronts key principles of good governance and dangerous for the future Ghana’s democracy.
CSOs, faith-based organizations, the diplomatic community and well-meaning Ghanaians are entreated to rise up in fierce resistance to this vindictive and destructive course being championed by our President.
Let’s not watch on for this to be added to the plethora of infamous achievements of the President in his 120 days in office ie. unfair mass terminations of jobs, storming of innocent political opponents homes with armed thugs, Dumsor, cocaine trafficking and money laundering.
Let’s save our democracy!
