The Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has dismissed an application filed by former Chief Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo, which sought to temporarily halt the work of the fact-finding committee that enquired into the petition for her removal.
The court also dismissed a preliminary objection raised by the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, which was challenging the court’s jurisdiction to hear the matter filed by former Chief Justice Torkornoo.
In a ruling yesterday, the ECOWAS Court held that the former Chief Justice’s application for an interim measure did not satisfy the criteria for a grant of same.
Specifically, the court was of the opinion that the applicant, Justice Torkornoo, filed the application for the provisional measure more than eight weeks after her suspension and more than six weeks after the committee’s hearing commenced.
“The Applicant's own conduct defeats her claim of imminent and irreparable harm,” the court held, adding that the applicant’s showing defeated the imminence and exceptional circumstance required for the court to temporarily halt the proceedings pending the final determination of the substantive case.
Meanwhile, the Court also dismissed the Attorney-General’s claim that the court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the application filed by the former Chief Justice.
It was of the opinion that Justice Gertrude Torkornoo has a prima facie case of a violation of her fundamental human rights, adding that it has jurisdiction to hear the case.
The court, therefore, gave the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice 30 days to file a response to former Chief Justice Torkornoo’s substantive suit, which alleged a violation of her human rights guaranteed under the 1992 Constitution and the 1991 Protocol on the Community Court of Justice.
Petitions
On Tuesday, March 25 this year, the President, John Dramani Mahama, informed the nation that he had begun a consultative process with the Council of State in response to three petitions which sought the removal of Chief Justice Torkornoo.
The three petitions were forwarded to the Council of State, in line with Article 146 (6) of the 1992 Constitution.
Following the determination of a prima facie case in the three petitions asking for the removal from office of the then Chief Justice, President Mahama suspended her and set up a five-member committee to inquire into the petitions.
The committee was chaired by Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang, a Justice of the Supreme Court.
Other members were Justice Samuel Kwame Adibu-Asiedu, also a Justice of the Supreme Court; Daniel Yaw Domelevo, a former Auditor-General; Major Flora Bazaanura Dalugo from the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), and Professor James Sefah Dzisah, an associate Professor at the University of Ghana.
The five-member committee started work on Thursday, May 15, this year.
Removed
In September, President Mahama, acting on the recommendation of the constitutional committee which probed the three petitions accusing former Chief Justice Torkornoo of misconduct, removed her from office.
After her suspension in April this year, she filed two applications at the ECOWAS Court.
In her substantive case, the former Chief Justice is seeking to enforce her human rights over what she described as a blatant disregard of her right to a fair hearing guaranteed under the 1992 Constitution and the 1991 Protocol on the Community Court of Justice.
Along with the substantive case, she had filed an application for provisional measure, an option available to her, to apply for the court to temporarily halt the suspension and the committee’s probe into the petitions for her removal.
In the main suit, she sought 10 reliefs from the Community Court of Justice.
Among them was a declaration that
