CJ C’ttee petition: Mahama has “serious problems to tackle”, not “a 20-second restaurant encounter” – Ansa-Asare – Nsemkeka
Former Director of the Ghana School of Law, Kwaku Ansa-Asare, has dismissed a petition seeking to dissolve the five-member committee probing suspended Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, describing it as lacking merit. He insists the judicial process must proceed without interruption.
The controversy deepened when a Ghanaian citizen filed a counter-petition on May 19, addressed to President John Dramani Mahama, demanding the committee’s immediate dissolution. The petitioner alleged that the committee’s integrity had been compromised due to judicial ethics violations by some members, specifically citing a meeting between Justices Gabriel Pwamang and Samuel Adibu-Asiedu (both committee members) and Thaddeus Sory, the lawyer who represents one of the petitioners seeking the Chief Justice’s removal.
The alleged encounter occurred at a restaurant in Accra on May 15, the same day the committee began its in-camera hearings. However, after reviewing CCTV footage of the incident, Ansa-Asare concluded that the claims were unfounded.
Speaking on Joy News’ The Pulse, he argued:
“Asking the president to dissolve a committee probing the petition merely because of a 20-second encounter at a restaurant where the people had converged to celebrate their colleague’s birthday, I think it should be dismissed. I don’t think on both precedent and rules of court and the law, (that) this is something that the president should worry himself about. He has many more serious problems to tackle than spending time to talk about an encounter that didn’t last more than 20 seconds.”
Ansa-Asare further scrutinised the footage, stating:
“This didn’t last more than 20 seconds. There is considerable doubt as to the nature of their conversation. Whether the conversation centred around the ongoing petition, there is considerable doubt about that.”
He dismissed allegations against Justice Pwamang, who was not present at the restaurant, as “frivolous.” Regarding Justice Adibu-Asiedu, he noted: “Justice Asiedu was there, but we have all seen that the conversation was not about the ongoing petition. What can four or so people talk about in 20 seconds? I would say that it doesn’t measure up to the standard.”
Ansa-Asare emphasised that legal challenges to judicial impartiality must be based on substantive evidence, not fleeting interactions.
“When we measure it against the fact that the action the CJ has brought is seeking to have the two justices disqualified, legally, this is a matter or question of fact. And questions of fact will depend on the surroundings and circumstances of the facts of the case.”