Elizabeth Ohene says the removal of Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo has struck at the heart of Ghana’s trust in its judiciary, warning that the symbolic sanctity of judges is being dismantled.
“In my mind, judges were sacred. They were the last resort for the citizen when all else failed,” she explained in a post shared on social media.
Ohene recounted an experience in London, where a fellow Ghanaian journalist accused her of being elitist for caring so much about the murdered judges.
“A colleague tried to shame me, saying I was upset only because the victims were important people.
“Maybe I would plead guilty to being elitist, but in my scheme of things, if Cecilia Koranteng-Addow had been a market woman or a chief executive and was abducted and killed for her jewellery, that crime would be on a different level from abducting and murdering her because she was a judge who had made rulings some people disagreed with.”
She added that judges are inevitably held to higher standards than other professionals, which is why public confidence in the judiciary can collapse when it’s undermined.
“I don’t think the Anas documentary on the judiciary would have had the kind of effect it had if the subject of his enquiry had been Members of Parliament, headmasters, or even doctors. But because it was judges — the last resort — it shook the nation.”
For Ohene, the dismissal of a Chief Justice sets a dangerous precedent, eroding the symbolic pedestal on which judges stand.
