Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkornoo

Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo is a Ghanaian judge who was the 15th Chief Justice of Ghana, and the third woman in the post, from 12 June 2023 until 1 September 2025. She became the first Chief Justice of the Fourth Republic to be removed from office, after an inquiry under Article 146 of the Constitution found her guilty of stated misbehaviour.

Early life and education

Torkornoo was born in Cape Coast on 11 September 1962, the second of five children, and comes from Winneba in the Central Region. She attended Wesley Girls' High School from 1973 to 1978 and Achimota School for her sixth form, then read law and sociology at the University of Ghana, graduating in 1984. She was called to the Bar after the Ghana School of Law in 1986. She later took a postgraduate diploma in international law at the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague (2001) and a Master of Laws in intellectual property at Golden Gate University in San Francisco (2011).

Lawyer to judge

She began with FIDA's legal aid service, interned at Nabarro Nathanson in London, and spent the late 1980s and 1990s at Fugar & Co. in Accra, where she became a director in 1994. In 1997 she co-founded Sozo Law Consult and ran it as managing partner until 2004.

She was appointed a High Court judge on 14 May 2004, moved to the Court of Appeal in October 2012 and joined the Supreme Court on 17 December 2019. Along the way she supervised the Commercial Courts, chaired the judiciary's e-Justice committee on court automation, and sat on the panel that heard the 2020 election petition.

Chief Justice

President Nana Akufo-Addo nominated her as Chief Justice on 26 April 2023. Parliament approved her on 7 June and she was sworn in on 12 June 2023, succeeding Kwasi Anin-Yeboah.

Suspension and removal

In March 2025 a citizen, Daniel Ofori, petitioned President John Mahama for her removal. Mahama found a case to answer and suspended her on 22 April 2025, setting up a five-member committee that included Supreme Court justices Gabriel Pwamang and Samuel Kwame Adibu Asiedu. Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie acted as Chief Justice in the meantime.

The committee heard witnesses on both sides and reviewed about 10,000 pages of documents. It found that she had caused the Judicial Service to pay travel costs and per diems for her husband and daughter on private holiday trips in 2023, which it called a "reckless dissipation of public funds"; that her handling of a staff transfer breached Article 296 of the Constitution; and that she had tried to get around the established process for nominating Supreme Court justices. Mahama removed her by warrant on 1 September 2025. Baffoe-Bonnie was later confirmed as her successor.

Torkornoo fought the removal through several court actions, including a case at the ECOWAS Court, which dismissed it. On 2 July 2026 a seven-member Supreme Court panel chaired by Justice Amadu Tanko unanimously dismissed all the consolidated cases against her removal, ending the legal fight.