Former Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu has launched a scathing attack on Ghana’s Chief Justice, Gertrude Torkornoo, accusing her of abandoning the dignity of her office amid efforts to remove her through a constitutional petition.
In an open letter, Amidu claimed, “The Chief Justice of Ghana, Mrs. Gertrude Torkornoo, has since the initiation of the petitions to remove her from office thrown away all the decorum and respect demanded of her high office and started behaving in a childlike manner of crying, ingratiating, begging and appealing to the emotions and sympathies of her colleagues in the Supreme Court.”
He was reacting to what he called a “spurious, vexatious and frivolous supplementary affidavit” filed by the Chief Justice to support her application for an interim injunction, which he said had already made its way to the media.
Amidu insisted that the Supreme Court had clearly established that proceedings related to the removal of Superior Court judges under Article 146 of the Constitution must be conducted in camera.
“That is the Constitution and law of Ghana until the same Court decides in the future to depart from its own previous decisions,” he wrote.
He further pointed to three recent Supreme Court dismissals of applications for injunctions aimed at restraining public officers under Article 146, two of which were dismissed on May 21, 2025. Amidu described what happened next as suspiciously coordinated.
“As though already choreographed and agreed by a scripted plan, after the Supreme Court dismissed the two interim applications, the Chief Justice herself on the same day, 21 May 2025 at 3:00 pm commenced an action by writ asserting her right to a public hearing,” he wrote.
Amidu explained that the Chief Justice’s writ challenged the suspension warrant issued by the President and sought to restrain committee members from proceeding with the petition. The motion was reportedly filed without a supporting affidavit, and yet it appeared in the media almost immediately.
He questioned the motives behind the move, stating: “The writ without the Statement of the Plaintiff’s Case, and motion for interim injunction without the accompanying affidavit were instantly published in the media.”
