Give up the fight and move on – Franklin Cudjoe tells Suspended CJ

President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has advised the suspended Chief Justice, Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo, to abandon her legal fight following the Supreme Court’s dismissal of her injunction application.

Justice Torkornoo had sought to halt the work of a five-member presidential committee investigating petitions for her removal from office. But on Wednesday, May 28, the Supreme Court rejected her interlocutory application, allowing the committee to continue its work.

In the application, the suspended Chief Justice had also asked the court to bar members of the committee—Justices Gabriel Scott Pwamang and Samuel Kwame Adibu-Asiedu, former Auditor-General Daniel Yao Domelevo, Major Flora Bazuwaaruah Dalugo, and Professor James Sefah Dziasah—from participating in the inquiry until the substantive case was determined.

Reacting to the development on Channel One TV’s The Big Issue with Selorm Adonoo on Saturday, May 31, Franklin Cudjoe said it was time for Justice Torkornoo to step aside.

“At this juncture, my honest view is that she should just give up, because the way things are going, there’s no way [she will sail through]. She will be remembered in history that she fought. Maybe that is what she wants,” he opined.

Mr. Cudjoe also criticised Justice Torkornoo’s plea to allow her husband and daughter into the proceedings, suggesting it demonstrated a lack of awareness about the gravity of her situation.

“It’s a bit pity and sad for her to say that her husband and daughter should be allowed in. She should have negotiated with the Committee. If these basic things are denied, you should know that you are persona non grata already; you have overstayed your welcome. As brutal as the process may be, it is the law, the law is the law,” he indicated.

Justice Torkornoo remains suspended while the inquiry proceeds under the authority of a committee established by President John Dramani Mahama.