As the incoming Chief Justice of Ghana, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has proposed Supreme Court Justice Gertrude Torkornoo.
Parliament must first approve her nomination.
Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah will retire as Chief Justice on May 24 of this year when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70 for justices of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. If approved by Parliament, Justice Torkornoo will take his place.
President Akufo-Addo stated in a letter to the Council of State that Justice Torkornoo, who has “on the Supreme Court for the last four (4) and has been a member of the Judiciary for the last nineteen (19) years is duly qualified and eminently fit to discharge the functions of Chief Justice.”
Justice Getrude Torkornoo will follow in the footsteps of Justices Georgina Theodora Wood and Sophia Akuffo to become the third female Chief Justice in history.
Since taking office in January 2017, President Akufo-Addo has appointed three people to the position of Chief Justice. Justice Torkornoo will be the third.
About Justice Gertrude Torkornoo
Judge Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkornoo was born in Ghana on September 11, 1962. She received parliamentary approval for her appointment to the Supreme Court in December after being nominated in November 2019. She was inaugurated on December 17, 2019.
She was appointed a Supreme Court judge in 2019 and has served on the Ghanaian bench since 2004. Since 2005, she has participated actively in the main reform agenda and activities of the Ghanaian judiciary and judicial service. She was one of the first Justices of the Commercial Division of the High Court.
Childhood and Education
Gertrude Torkornoo is a native of Winneba in Ghana’s Central Region. She attended both Achimota School and Wesley Girls’ High School, where she earned her certificate for the ordinary level.
She earned her law degree from the Ghana School of Law in 1986 and is a graduate of the University of Ghana.
