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Suspended Chief Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkonoo has firmly rejected calls for her resignation or voluntary retirement amid ongoing investigations into three separate petitions seeking her removal from office.
Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, 25th June, Justice Torkonoo stated that she remains resolute in facing her accusers and maintains her innocence. She suggested that the removal process may be politically motivated disclosing that she has received threats to force her resignation.
She remarked:
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The situation I have been confronted with has shown me a model of injustice that I would never have thought possible if I had not been exposed to it. This is why, despite great personal discomfort, I have decided to marshal every effort in law and leadership to respond to the situation.
Justice Torkonoo further asserted that resigning or retiring while proceedings under Article 146 of the Constitution are ongoing is not an option available to any judge or public official.
She added that any such decision will lead to the loss of all entitlements:
The suit number is J6/02/2019. Again, no one has the authority to walk away from proceedings initiated by the state. Judgements can be entered against you for failing to defend yourself. A judge who resigns or retires under such circumstances would lose all entitlements earned over the years simply because they failed to defend themselves.
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She added:
It may well be that the efforts being made are intended to frustrate me so that I resign, so that the architects of the scheme can go back into the media and say that the wild and unfounded allegations were not defended because they were true, and I had no defense to them.
Continuing her remarks, she said:
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As Chief Justice of the nation, who has been given the privilege and obligation to lead administration of justice, I should not turn tail and run when I know the implications of not defending false and unwarranted charges. If I resign under these circumstances, I will be saying that this flawed, unknown and opaque process is acceptable. It is not.
In her address, the embattled Chief Justice also accused the committee investigating her, chaired by Justice Gabriel Pwamang, of abuse, intimidation, and breaching constitutional processes.