GBA President Efua Ghartey parries 'selectivity' criticism on advocacy role
The President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Mrs Efua Ghartey, has parried criticisms against the association on its advocacy role in recent times in relation to an accusation of being selective.
Delivering her address at the opening of the 2025 annual conference of the Ghana Bar Association, which opened in Wa in the Upper West Region on Monday, Mrs Ghartey defended the bar association's position on the removal of Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo and acknowledged that the power of the removal of the CJ could be exercised under Article 146, but decried the process.
The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr Dominic A. Ayine had said even though the Bar has played a crucial role in assisting the Supreme Court over the years to interpret and enforce the constitution over the years, “outside the courtroom, the advocacy of the Bar has lacked consistency.”
Reacting to that criticism, Mrs Ghartey said there were no clear and comprehensive regulations relating to matters under Article 146, and “in the absence of specific rules of procedure, the sketchy process potentially lends itself to arbitrariness and lack of fairness.”
She said the lack of an enactment for the removal of the 4th highest person in the nation should be a matter of concern to all.
“These rules should have been known to all and sundry before the commencement of the process as it greatly affected the standard to be met.
“It is an unfortunate precedent that lacks fairness, a situation that calls for redress if we are indeed custodians of justice,” she said
She said the constitution of the GBA enjoined the members to protect the independence of the Judiciary and this “is a duty the association does not take lightly, and from time immemorial, the Bar has fiercely performed this duty.”
