Justice Gertrude Araba Esabaa Torkornoo, a candidate for chief justice, has warned the public against the practice of giving money to specific people to be given to judges in order to influence their decisions.
According to her, the alleged funds frequently end up in the pockets of the people who collect them rather than the judges.
Justice Torkornoo stated during her vetting by the Appointments Committee of Parliament today [Friday, May 26, 2023] that the public should not tolerate the idea that judges can be swayed by money because it is alien to the legal profession.
According to her, some people have developed a market where they take advantage of innocent people whose cases are in court by telling them that if money is given to judges, it will help to sway justice in their favor.
Justice Torkornoo used an analogy to illustrate her point that judges do not accept payments in exchange for their decisions, claiming that nine out of ten people who do so secretly end up pocketing the cash.
“Don’t give money to people to be taken to judges,” she said, adding that sometimes, attorneys do not follow proper procedures when presenting clients’ cases in court, which results in cases being lost.
Justice Torkornoo is vying for the position of Justice Kwesi Anin Yeboah, who announced his retirement from the bench this week.
In April 2023, she received the president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s nomination.
In a letter to the Council of State, President Akufo-Addo said Justice Torkornoo who has been “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 Torkornoo will follow in the footsteps of Justices Georgina Theodora Wood and Sophia Akuffo to become the third female Chief Justice in history.
