CJ Removal: Minority slams ‘judicial coup’, alleges plot to run Ghana as a ‘gangster town’

The Minority caucus in Parliament has strongly criticised President John Dramani Mahama’s decision to remove Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo from her position as Chief Justice, effective Monday, 1 September 2025.

In a statement dated 2 September, John Darko, Legal Counsel to the Minority Caucus, expressed shock at the decision, describing it as politically motivated and an assault on the judiciary.

He alleged that the removal of the Chief Justice forms part of a grand agenda by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) to undermine state institutions and govern the country “as a gangster town.”

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The statement read:

Our caucus, even though aware of the administration’s machinations to remove the Chief Justice, still held the belief that the President would appeal to his better angels and act virtuously for the sake of the nation.

It continued:

This flagrant assault on the judiciary by the head of the executive brings into sharp focus the destruction of state institutions by this administration. Ghana now joins the unenviable group of nations such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka which have removed their Chief Justices for political purposes.

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Mr Darko further argued that political considerations, not legal grounds, were behind the decision, citing remarks by leading NDC figures ahead of the 2024 elections. He asserted:

From the President’s address to NDC lawyers and the repeated claims by the NDC Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, that Justice Torkornoo and the Electoral Commission Chair must be removed at all cost during the 2024 campaign, this removal clearly fits into the NDC’s broader plan to weaken state institutions and run the country as a gangster town.

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He concluded that the President, by this single act, has set back Ghana’s democratic progress and urged all well-meaning citizens, including traditional leaders, the clergy and the media, to condemn what he described as a “judicial coup” in no uncertain terms.