Orchestration to remove CJ assault on judicial indece – Assafuah
The Member of Parliament for Tafo, Mr Ekow Vincent Assafuah, has argued the manner in which the removal of the Chief Justice (CJ) is being orchestrated, and is the biggest assault on the independence of the Judiciary.
In his supplementary affidavit in support of application for interlocutory injunction, he urged the Supreme Court not to countenance unconstitutional removal of the CJ from office.
The application was deposed to by Stephen Yankey, a law clerk in the firm of Messrs Dame and Partners, Accra, the firm representing Mr Assafuah.
“That I have the consent and authority of the plaintiff/applicant herein, who is undergoing medical treatment abroad, to depose to this affidavit in respect of matters within my knowledge, information and honest belief,” the affidavit reads.
Mr Assafuah said the disclosure by the Attorney-General, Dr Dominic Akurutinga Ayine, that the first two petitions were presented to the President in February, 2025, but the President waited until the end of March, 2025 (more than six clear weeks) before disclosing receipt of same via a press release, whilst undertaking consultations with the
Council of State, showed that the President had already taken serious steps under article 146 for the removal of the Chief Justice before the purported disclosure of receipt of the petitions in the press release.
He further stated that the manner in which the President and the Council of State had handled the three petitions against the President confirms that the purported “article 146 proceedings” instituted against the Chief Justice are a charade, a farce and merely choreographed to achieve the declared intention of the Government and its associates of the current Government to remove the Chief Justice at all costs.
Mr Assafuah also stated that the President had on many occasions attacked the Supreme Court, of which the current Chief Justice has at all material times been part, and expressed his intention to appoint a Chief Justice who will not be “partisan”.
Again, the lawmaker argued that other appointees of the President, have in very recent times, expressed a view on the petitions purportedly presented against the Chief Justice and indicated that she will surely be removed.
Moreover, he said that the Chairman of the NDC, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, had on other occasions also expressed his frustrations about what he considers to be a biased Judiciary, the need to remove the Chief Justice from office and for a new Chief Justice to be appointed.
“That I am advised by counsel and verily believe same to be true that the foregoing demonstrates that the article 146 proceedings initiated against the Chief Justice are a ruse to give effect to the avowed determination of the current Government to unconstitutionally remove the Chief Justice from office, and buttresses the urgent need for this Court’s intervention by the grant of an injunction to protect the hallowed principles of judicial independence and security of tenure of the Chief Justice at play in the instant case,” according to Mr Assafuah.
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
