The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has nominated a justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Gertrude Torkornoo for appointment as Ghana’s next Chief Justice.
The President has accordingly written to the Council of State in a letter dated 25th April 2023 to inform them about her nomination.
Her nomination becomes necessary following the pending retirement of the current Chief Justice, Kwasi Anin Yeboah on 24th May, 2023 when he turns 70.
“Consequently, I am nominating Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkornoo, a member of the Supreme Court, as the new Chief Justice,” the president stated in the letter to the Chairman of the Council of State, Nana Otuo Siriboe II.
“I am fully satisfied that Justice Torkornoo, who has been on the Supreme Court for the last four (4) years, and has been a member of the Judiciary for the last nineteen (19) years, is duly qualified and eminently fit to discharge the functions of Chief Justice,” the letter read in part.
President Akufo-Addo has therefore asked the Council to expeditiously take action on Justice Gertrude Torkornoo’s nomination for onward submission to Parliament for consideration.
Mr. Akufo-Addo is hopeful Parliament would consider her nomination “as early as possible” so that she would be sworn into office upon the retirement of Chief Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah to avoid a vacuum.
Her nomination settles the brouhaha over who will succeed Justice Anin Yeboah after the name of Justice Yoni Kulendi strongly came up as one of the persons being considered by the president for the job.
Her appointment would be President Akufo-Addo’s third appointment to the Chief Justice position since he took office in January 2017.
Justice Torkornoo’s appointment would make her the third female Chief Justice in Ghana’s history, following the footsteps of Justices Georgina Theodora Wood and Sophia Akuffo.
Gertrude Torkornoo hails from Winneba in the Central Region of Ghana. She was born on 11 September 1962 in Cape Coast. She attended Wesley Girls’ High School where she obtained her ordinary level certificate and Achimota School for her advanced level certificate.
She is an alumna of the University of Ghana and graduated from the Ghana School of Law in 1986. In 2001 she obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in International Law and Organization from the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), part of Erasmus University in the Netherlands. In 2011, she graduated from the Golden Gate University, USA with an LLM in Intellectual Property Law.
