JUSTICE BAFFOE-BONNIE IS PRESIDENT MAHAMA'S SURROGATE IN THE LONG GAME TO CONTROL THE JUDICIARY
JUSTICE BAFFOE-BONNIE IS PRESIDENT MAHAMA'S SURROGATE IN THE LONG GAME TO CONTROL THE JUDICIARY.
BY MARTIN A. B. K. AMIDU
"The old man's agenda is one that will benefit Ghana. We should do everything to ensure that he succeeds. If the old man has decided that you are the right person to be in this position out of the 30 million people, it means he has a lot of confidence in you; And so, we should do everything to make sure that his agenda succeeds." – Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie.
THE PROLOGUE
President Mahama’s Government will soon be entering its second year in office after the euphoria of the massive victory the electorate gave him in the hope that he had learnt lessons from losing the 7 December 2016 elections and would, therefore, be the bastion of democracy, the rule of law and constitutionalism in his second term as President. I share the same origin and heritage with President Mahama, having become an integral part of Ghana from the Northern Territories of the British Protectorate of the Gold Coast Colony (NT), which was noted for its impeccable tradition of honesty and integrity in public service and social life.
It is becoming increasingly clear to me as Ghana inches towards the second anniversary of President Mahama’s second term in office that some of his policy decisions and actions which outwardly appear to bear the veneer of constitutionality and legality are leading the country towards serious political polarization that could compromise the unity and stability of the Republic of Ghana under the 1992 Constitution.
The Judiciary, which has always been the bedrock of our democracy and constitutionalism has faced assaults from the political elites across the political divide since 7 January 2001 wishing to recruit it as an appendage of the executive arm of government to denude the rule of law and our democracy guaranteed under the Constitution. Within Africa, Ghana is not the first country, nor will it be the last to face such challenges from the political elites endeavouring to capture the Judiciary through appointments and promotion of judges to and within the judiciary as inducements to achieve their political objectives. For most African countries who tried, the end results have not been good for democracy.
I have played various roles, albeit unnoticed, in the stability of this country since the inception of the 31 December Revolution, through the transition to democracy, the framing of the 1992 Constitution for the 28 April 1992 referendum and in successive governments thereafter. I have consistently exercised my right to speak truth to governments, even as a public officer, whenever I perceived the Constitution to be endangered. I supported the removal process of Mrs. Justice Torkornoo from office as Chief Justice, as having been complaint with the letter of the Constitution in the hope that the government and her successor will learn lessons from her misconduct in office and uphold the independence of the Judiciary.
I have been compelled by the statements of Chief Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie who succeeded Mrs. Justice Torkornoo in his address to the staff of the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) on 2 September 2026 quoted above, to take a second look at whether any lessons have been learnt from the first removal process of a Chief Justice by petition in Ghana’s history in the hope that President Mahama would reassess the direction in which this country is headed. The discourse that follows, though lengthy, sets out detailed and considered conclusions from my examination and analysis of the current state of our judiciary under the 1992 Constitution.
When President Mahama fails, my origin and heritage also fail. I hope President Mahama would listen and leave a legacy those of us from the former NT can be proud of. The tale I continue to exhort as a son of the NT will always remain the same: Radix Malorum Est Cupiditas! Greed is the root of all evil!
INTRODUCTION
Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie's rhetoric of adoration, loyalty, and pledge of allegiance to President John Dramani Mahama, instead of to the Republic of Ghana, which slipped from his inarticulate consciousness to be articulated publicly on 2 September 2026 at the Minerals Income and Investment Fund (MIIF), can only be understood within the context of an examination and analysis of available histories of his lifelong interactive socialization, signals of life ambitions available to the public, background knowledge and experiences articulated in interactive social communications with significant others, and past rhetorics available as narratives of his thought processes and actions.
Mrs. Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkornoo, the Chief Justice of Ghana who ushered into office the government of President John Dramani Mahama on 7 January 2025, later found herself becoming the first Chief Justice of Ghana to be suspended from office to facilitate her removal from the office of Chief Justice. The adversaries of the Akufo-Addo government which appointed her had perceived Mrs. Justice Torkornoo as lacking judicial neutrality and comportment as Chief Justice in the manner she exercised her administrative functions in the composition of adjudicating and appellate courts, and the distribution and transfer of cases suspected of having political undertones to favour the executive branch. This became obvious in the run-up to the 7 December 2024 elections in the disagreements between the judicial administration and the Supreme Court on the one hand and Parliament with the Speaker siding with the minority, on the other, as indicative of impending troubles for her position should the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of Nana Akufo-Addo lose the 2024 elections.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) and its supporters, some of who were on trial for various criminal offences in the courts and who perceived themselves to be at the receiving end of Chief Justice Torkornoo’s lack of judicial neutrality and comportment massively won both the Parliamentary and Presidential elections on 7 December 2024. President Mahama’s government was thus unfettered in its control over Parliament, and the composition of the Council of State which had constitutional responsibility to determine whether the Chief Justice ought to be suspended from office pending the hearing of further removal petitions against her in the new government.
An examination and analysis of the available qualitative data will show that behind the constitutional and legal façade of compliance with the letter of the 1992 Constitution in Mrs. Justice Torkornoo’s removal petition processes, lay social, political, economic, cultural and other symbolic interactive relationships informing the choices of the decision-makers in handling the removal petitions. It will also show a political objective to socially construct a political and legal reality in which the executive branch will recruit and control the judicial arm of government for a reset political reform agenda predetermined before the 7 December 2024 elections.
President Mahama’s government is not the first and may not be the last to seek to socially construct a political and legal reality behind constitutional and legal façades of compliance with the Constitution, in which the Executive will endeavouur to recruit and control the Judiciary to achieve a predetermined political agenda upon assumption of power in Ghana.
President John Agyekum Kufour’s government blackmailed Chief Justice Isaac Kobina Abban into resigning as Chief Justice on pain of impeachment to enable the next most senior Justice of the Supreme Court at the time, Mr. Justice Edward Wiredu to assume his place as acting Chief Justice and to be later confirmed as the Chief Justice. When Chief Justice Wiredu suffered a stroke and went into a comma, he was forcibly resigned and Mr. Justice George Acquah appointed in his place in order that the most senior Justice of the Supreme Court who was Mrs. Justice Bamford Addo may not even act as the Chief Justice. Mr. Justice Wiredu recovered from his ailment in the United Kingdom only to return to learn of his resignation while in comma: he survived to attend Chief Justice Acquah’s funeral when he died of a brain tumor in office.
Mrs. Justice Georgina Wood who, though not the most senior of the Justices on the Supreme Court succeeded Mr. Justice Acquah as Chief Justice under the Kufour government, remained in Office as the Chief Justice across three governments until her retirement under President Akufo-Addo’s government. President Akufo-Addo bypassed the most senior Justice of the Supreme Court, Mr. Justice William Atuguba, who had presided over the 2013 Presidential Election Petition and cast his vote against him to nominate his cousin from the paternal side. Ms. Justice Sophia Akuffo as Chief Justice. Mr. Justice Anin Yebaoh, who had led the dissenters in upholding the 2013 Presidential Petition, was subsequently nominated by President Akufo-Addo to replace the retiring Ms. Justice Akuffo over the more senior Mr. Justice Jones Dotse who had cast his vote with the majority in that case.
When Mr. Justice Anin Yebaoh retired from the Supreme Court, President Akufo-Addo bypassed Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie who was in line to be the most senior of the Justices of the Supreme Court after the impending retirement of Mr. Justice Jones Dotse to nominate and appoint one of the most junior Justices of the Supreme Court, Mrs. Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkornoo, as the Chief Justice of Ghana. Mrs. Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkornoo’s tenure as the Chief Justice of Ghana exposed challenges and perceptions of bias in the administration of the Judiciary as will be discussed shortly. This then was the state of the Judiciary, when the NPP government lost the 7 December 2024 elections to the NDC with Mrs. Justice Torkornoo as Chief Justice of Ghana.
On 7 January 2025 when the Legislative and Executive branches assumed office with President Mahama as President, Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie had less than two years to retire from the Supreme Court of Ghana, having joined the Judicial Service in the hope of ascending to the office of the Chief Justice. More importantly, we ought not miss the point that Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie was also the only Justice of the Supreme Court judge amongst all the nine Justices of the Supreme Court who adjudicated and the five who voted to save President Mahama by a razor thin majority of one in the election petition case of In Re Presidential Election Petition; Akufo-Addo & 2 Others v Mahama & 2 Others (No. 4) [2013] (Special Edition) 73 still on the Supreme Court to whom gratitude was owed by the Mahama Government.
Consequently, Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie, whose family and President Mahama’s family had become intertwined as one family and brotherhood over the years was at the right position in the Judicial Service at the right time as the most senior justice of the Supreme Court to enable the consummation of the reset judicial reform agenda of the executive branch of government which already controlled Parliament.
The submission of the petitions beginning 14 February 2025 for the removal of Mrs. Justice Torkornoo as Chief Justice on grounds of misbehaviour, abuse of power and misuse of public funds soon after the change in government on 7 January 2025 afforded the government the opportunity to set in motion the process for implementing a reset reform agenda in the administration of the judiciary without breaching the letter of the 1992 Constitution. The recommendation by the government dominated Council of State for the first time in Ghana’s history to suspend Mrs. Justice Torkornoo from office as Chief Justice pending investigations into the petitions against her automatically gave the President Mahama government the ability to extend its influence to the Judiciary with Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie assuming the office of Acting (Ag.) Chief Justice by operation of law without any overt accusations of favouritism, nepotism or other affiliations.
Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie knows that he owed his position as acting Chief Justice to the government-controlled Council of State which for the first time recommended the suspension of the substantive Chief Justice. Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie also knew that his ability to ascend to the substantive office of Chief Justice depended on the appreciation of his performance by the President during the interregnum and his subsequent nomination by the President in consultation with the same Council of State and the approval of the Parliament overwhelmingly dominated by the President’s political party.
On 17 November 2025, Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie attained his life’s ambition of becoming the Chief Justice of Ghana thanks to President Mahama’s reset agenda of administering the judiciary which in Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie’s honest belief, publicly stated on 2 September 2026, will benefit Ghana. Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie became the surrogate of President John Mahama’s judicial reset agenda when the government with its Council of State cleared the way for Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonie to become Ag. Chief Justice and secondly to be nominated and appointed the Chief Justice of Ghana “out of the 30 million people”.
We are missing the point in evaluating Mr. Justice Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie’s rhetoric contained in his speech to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and MIIF on 2 September 2026 without taking into account the environment, and opportune circumstances created by the defeat of the NPP at the 2024 elections that enabled President Mahama to reset the administration of justice in his own image and likeness.
THE REMOVAL PETITIONS AND SUSPENSION OF MRS. JUSTICE TORKORNOO
On 7 January 2025, the Chief Justice, Mrs. Justice Torkornoo swore John Dramani Mahama into office as the President of Ghana. On 14 February 2025 the first petition for the removal of Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo from office was submitted to the President. Two further petitions followed, culminating on 25 March 2025 with an announcement by the government that three petitions submitted for the removal of Chief Justice Trokornoo had been forwarded to the Council of State in accordance with Article 146(6) of the Constitution. The Council of State determined a prima facie case against her and for the first time in Ghanaian history recommended to the President to suspend her from office while the investigations were instituted into the allegations of misconduct against her.
President Mahama suspended Mrs. Justice Torkornoo from office on 22 April 2025. The President on the same day set up a five-member committee to investigate the allegations of misconduct made against her under the Chairpersonship of Mr. Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang, Justice of the Supreme Court and the next most senior justice of the Court after Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie.
The appointment of the most senior after the most senior Supreme Court justice to chair the five-member committee to investigate the petitions against Mrs. Justice Torkornoo and assumption of office on the same day of the most senior Supreme Court justice becoming the acting Chief Justice by operation of law though legally and constitutionally valid would have ramifications for the ethics of the potential expectations of these two justices to succeed Mrs. Justice Torkornoo or to succeed one another should she be removed from office. The Council of State Chaired by a former Speaker from the NDC knew the desired consequences attainable by the suspension of the Chief Justice.
BAFFOE-BONNIE BECOMES ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE BY OPERATION OF LAW
Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie who was the most senior justice of the Supreme Court, became the acting Chief Justice of Ghana by operation of law on 23 April 2026 just four months after President Mahama assumed office as President.
As the acting Chief Justice of Ghana, Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie, assumed responsibility for the administration of the Judicial Service of Ghana with the concomitant obligation of exhibiting the highest degree of judicial neutrality and comportment befitting the office and to restore confidence in the administration of justice.
Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie assumed the administrative and supervisory responsibility of the Chief Justice to determine the composition of panels at all levels of the court system and in particular of the Supreme Court in determining suits involving the suspended substantive Chief Justice during the period of her suspension. Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie had the potential to succeed Mrs. Justice Torkornoo if she were removed from office, making him to have an interest in the outcome of the petitions.
Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie not only composed the panels of the Supreme Court as a matter of necessity but personally presided over the interlocutory applications involving the suspended and substantive Chief Justice as to whether her suspension was consistent with the Constitution.
Mrs. Justice Torkornoo is the first Chief Justice of Ghana to be suspended from office by a President who has absolute control over a Council of State substantially composed by him. This was unlike the case in Tuffuor v Attorney-General ]1980] GLR 637, Ghana Bar Association v. Attorney-General and Another (1995-96) 1GLR 598, and Frank Agyei-Twum v. Attorney-General and Akwetey (2005-2006) SCGLR 732 which were suits affecting sitting Chief Justices, to mention a few such cases.
In those cases, the sitting Chief Justices composed the panel but recused themselves from presiding over them in deference to the rules of natural justice and the hallowed traditions of neutrality and impartiality of the Office of Chief Justice. Mr. Justice Sowah, presided in the Tuffuor case. Mr. Justice Edward Wiredu presided in the GBA case, and Ms. Justice Sophia Akuffo, presided in the Agyei-Twum case.
Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie as the most senior Justice of the Supreme Court acting as the Chief Justice knew he had the potential of becoming the substantive Chief Justice upon the success of the petitions against Mrs. Justice Torkornoo leading to her removal from office. Nonetheless he empaneled himself to preside over most of the applications brough before the Supreme Court as though he was in hurry to see Mrs. Justice Torkornoo removed from office to satisfy his own ambitions of becoming the next Chief Justice.
SOCIALIZATION AND LIFE HISTORIES OF JUSICE BAFFOE-BONNIE
Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie's history of birth shows that he is the junior brother of the full blood of Kwasi Sainti Baffoe-Bonnie, who allegedly owned Network Broadcasting Company Limited which run the NDC aligned Radio Gold FM in Ghana.
However, I know from personal knowledge that the funds for the establishment of the company and radio station were initially made available by Dr. Obed Asamoah, then the Acting Attorney-General who was also the Chairman of the Financial Committee of the NDC. The original shareholding structure will show the interest of the NDC therein.
Kwasi Sainti Baffoe-Bonnie whose roots within the NDC are embedded in his association or friendship with known operatives of the 31 December Revolution was assigned by his mentors (with paternal origin from what is now the Western North Region) to the John Mahama 2008 presidential campaign. President Mills and Kwasi Baffoe-Bonnie's mentors rewarded him with appointment as a Senior Political Advisor to Vice-President John Mahama when the NDC returned to power on 7 January 2009. He retained his appointment as Presidential Staffer and Senior Political Advisor to President Mahama who succeeded President Mills by operation of law. Kwasi Sainti Baffoe-Bonnie remained an establishment besides President Mahama during the 2012 campaign for the President's first term in office which he won on 7 December 2012.
President Mahama appointed Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, a cousin to both Kwasi Sainti Baffoe-Bonnie and Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie as the Chairperson of the Governing Board of the National Communications Authority (NCA) from 21 February 2014 to 6 January 2017. The Akufo-Addo government tried and convicted Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie to six years imprisonment along with two others, who received five years imprisonment each on 12 May 2020 for causing financial loss to the state. Kwasi Sainti Baffoe-Bonnie died on 1 February 202 after candidate Mahama and he campaigned and lost the 7 December 2020 election again to Nana Akufo-Addo a second time.
It is simplistic to take one or two rhetorical speeches of Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie at public events and draw conclusions on the group affiliations, and political intentions of the rhetor without understanding the lifelong environmental influences shaping his thoughts and actions translated into the rhetorics, narratives and meaning intended to be communicated to the audience. The career path of the rhetor constitutes background knowledge and information to assess his narratives and actions.
THE CAREER PATH OF MR. JUSTICE BAFFOE-BONNIE
The career path of Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie shows him having been called to the Bar in Ghana on 25 August 1983. Mr. Paul Baffoe-Bonnie's career path took him to the Federal Republic of Nigeria in search of greener pastures (1982-84), a stint at the Ghana Prison Service (1988-1990), the Internal Revenue Service (now Ghana Revenue Authority (1990-1992), the inferior bench as a Circuit Court judge (1993-1999), was promoted to the Superior Courts as a Justice of the High Court (2000-2006), then elevated to the Court of Appeal on 17 August 2006, and finally to the Supreme Court on 11 January 2008. After almost eighteen years in the Supreme Court, he became the acting Chief Justice and was later nominated and was appointed the Chief Justice on 17 November 2025 by President Mahama whose family had become bosom friends of the Baffoe-Bonnie family.
The career path of Mr. Paul Baffoe-Bonnie as a superior court justice from the foregoing sees him as a political pendulum swinging between the NDC and NPP governments with enhanced promotions to the Court of Appeal on 17 August 2006 and to the Supreme Court on 11 January 2008 taking place in less than a two-year span under President Kufour's NPP government.
The NPP with Nana Akufo-Addo as their presidential candidate lost the 7 December 2008 elections to President Mills whose Vice President was Mr. John Mahama whose Senior Political Advisor Kwasi Sainti Baffoe-Bonnie, was the elder brother, of the full blood, of Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie.
When President Mahama campaigned to be President at the 2012 elections, Kwasi Sainti Baffoe-Bonnie, was by his side and campaigned with him and he won the elections as declared by the Electoral Commission. Mr. Mahama was sworn into office on 7 January 2013 as President for his first term in office. Nana Akufo-Addo, the NPP presidential candidate who lost the elections contested the results by a petition at the Supreme Court. The election petition was not decided until 29 August 2013 when the new government had made appoints and settled down to govern.
Mr. Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie who was a member of the panel of the Supreme Court did not recuse himself by virtue of his elder brother and cousin's interests in the results of the petition. The NPP did not also object to his sitting on the petition, apparently calculating on reciprocal gratitude for the speed with which the NPP elevated him from the High Court to the Court of Appeal and then to the Supreme Court. The 2013 Presidential Election Petition was decided in favour of the NDC's President John Mahama by a majority of five to four justices of the Supreme Court. Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie, as I had predicted, based on primordial family interest in the case at the time, voted with the majority against the NPP petition on 29 August 2013. Kwasi Sainti Baffoe-Bonnie remained beside President Mahama when he lost the 2016 elections to candidate Nana Akufo-Addo who became President on 7 January 2017.
On 7 January 2017 Nana Akufo-Addo became the President of Ghana. The animosity between the Akufo-Addo government and his predecessor government of former President Mahama became legendary for the determination of the Akufo-Addo government to use the instrumentality of criminal justice administration to settle scores with the previous NDC government.
Notably, the Akufo-Addo government arrested Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie the Chairperson of the NCA, and five others, tried, and convicted three of them. Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie was sentenced to six years imprisonment with the two others receiving five years imprisonment each on 12 May 2020 for, inter alia, causing financial loss to the state involving four (4) million USD. I have no reason to doubt Mr. Martin Kpebu's explicit statement during a recent debate that President Akufo-Addo personally pressured Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, without success, to resign from the Supreme Court during his tenure as President.
Kwasi Sainti Baffoe-Bonnie died on 1 February 2021 while NDC was under the oppression and persecution by the Nana Akufo-Addo government. The pain to President Mahama upon the death of Kwasi Sainti Baffoe-Bonnie is better expressed in his own words as captured by the media on Wednesday 3 February 2021: "Lost a friend, comrade, and a brother. RIP Kwasi Sainti Baffoe Bonnie (Babo)."
The foregoing appears to have been the state of the relationship between Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie and the President Mahama of the NDC on the one hand and the President Akufo-Addo of the NPP on the other upon the assumption of the presidency by President Mahama on 7 January 2025. It was within this acrimonious context that on 14 February 2025 the first petition was submitted for the removal of the notoriously perceived NPP inclined and biased Chief Justice, Mrs. Justice Gertrude Torkornoo.
THE TENURE OF MR. JUSTICE BAFFOE-BONNIE AS THE AG. CHIEF JUSTICE
One cannot, therefore, determine the judicial neutrality and comportment of Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie as acting Chief Justice of Ghana without taking into account the constitutional, institutional, and hallowed conventional demands of persons occupying the office of Chief Justice of Ghana and how his predecessors comported themselves to ensure the independence and impartiality of the Judiciary not only as the third co-equal arm of government but as the bulwark against oppression and dictatorship in a democracy.
Having assumed the position of acting Chief Justice on 23 April 2025, Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie now wielded the powers of the Chief Justice, responsible for administering, supervising and ensuring the hearing of the four substantive suits and interim applications filed challenging the removal petitions against Mrs. Justice Torkornoo. The subsequent challenges to the determination of prima facie case by the Council of State with the recommendation to the President to suspend Chief Justice Torkornoo from office allegedly in violation of Article 146 of the Constitution naturally came within Justice Baffoe-Bonnie’s empaneling powers.
Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie decided to expedite the hearings of the interim applications to quickly facilitate the outcome of Mrs. Justice Torkornoo’s removal petitions and to delay the hearing of the substantive suits to be heard only after her removal from office and the assumption of office of Chief Justice by Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie.
The reasons for Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie expediting the removal petition of Mrs. Justice Torkornoo will later be stated by him at his vetting for approval by Parliament to succeed Mrs. Justice Torkornoo who was far his junior on the Supreme Court before her elevation by President Akufo-Addo as the Chief Justice of Ghana. With his tongue in his cheek, he said on oath:
“I believe that I have what it takes to lead the Judicial Service…I was made a Circuit Court Judge by Chairman Rawlings. I was promoted in 2000 and sworn in by the then Vice President Mills. I was elevated to the Court of Appeal by President Kufuor and then to the Supreme Court by President Kufuor. So, if 17 years later another President deems it fit to elevate me to the position of Chief Justice, I think I cut across all political boundaries.”
Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie’s statement will sound true to those who did not live the events he was narrating. Unfortunately, I was Deputy Attorney-General when he was recruited into the Ghana Prisons Service in 1988, recruited into the Internal Revenue Service in 1990 by Prof. Atta-Mills as Ag Commissioner under the PNDC, appointed to the Circuit Court in 1993, and to the High Court in 2000 when Prof. Mills was Vice-President both under the NDC as a result of family and relationship networks when his elder brother Kwasi Baffoe-Bonnie was with the NDC. I have also already stated that President Mahama is not just another President coming to elevate him but a bosom family friend who owed him a debt of gratitude and considered him the most suitable for the reset judicial reform agenda of the government. Imagine the effect on judicial administration and integrity when an Ag. Chief Justice tells half-truths on oath.
The case of New Patriotic Party v Attorney-General [1993-94] GLR 35 at pages 56-57 per Adade JSC is one of several examples in which the Supreme Court would rather hear the substantive suits instead of an application for injunction in order not to prejudice the disposal of the main suits.
On or about 19 December 1993, the government announced to the nation that 31 December 1993, amongst others, would be a public holiday and celebrated and observed as such. On 21 December 1993 the plaintiff filed a writ of summons challenging the constitutionality of the celebrations from public funds and also filed an application for an interim injunction to restrain the Government of Ghana from: "all activities and preparations made or being made towards the celebration of the overthrow of the democratically elected Government of Ghana on 31 December 1981 as announced."
The application was put before a five-member panel of the Supreme Court on Thursday, 23 December 1993 presided over by Mr. Justice NYB Adade, the most senior justice of the Court after the Chief justice who incidentally was also one of the most honest justices to have sat on Ghana's Supreme Court. It became obvious to the panel that a ruling on the motion either way was bound to undermine the fate of the substantive suit.
The panel took the view that granting or refusing the application to await the hearing of the main case after 31 December 1993 would be tantamount to shutting the stable door after the horse had fled. The court, therefore, decided that the circumstances required that the substantive suit be heard as a matter of urgency prior to 31 December 1993.
The application for injunction was accordingly adjourned to be taken together with the, substantive suit. The action was eventually heard on 29 December 1993 by a panel of nine of the most senior justices of the Supreme Court presided over by the Chief Justice. A decision was pronounced in favour of the plaintiff. The Court, then reserved its reasons which were delivered on 8 March 1994.
A bench of nine ended up being empaneled to adjudicate despite the powers of the Chief Justice to empanel the Court because it was decided at conference that the importance and seriousness of the suit required that the panel be made of the most senior justices of the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice, Mr. Justice P.E.N.K. Archer, avoided the appearance of unfairness, and case fixing, in preference to instilling trust and confidence in the administration of justice. There are other cases in the law reports that demonstrate the burden on Chief Justices to exercise their administrative and supervisory powers to instill trust and confidence in the administration of justice.
The sequence of events and the exercise of acting Chief Justice Baffoe-Bonnie’s newly found authority to administer, supervise, and empanel the courts in matters affecting the removal petitions in which he had a personal and potential interest to succeed the suspended Chief Justice chronicles how the will to power and ambition for substantive power affects the exercise of discretionary power and action, rendering them unfair, arbitrary and capricious, excusable only by the immunity granted under Article 296 of the Constitution for the exercise of judicial discretion.
On 6 May 2025 the Supreme Court presided over by Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie dismissed by a majority decision of three to two as being without merit the application for interlocutory injunction to restrain the continuation of the removal processes against Mrs. Justice Torkornoo by the President as claimed in the suit dated 27 March 2025 challenging the petitions in the case of Vincent Assafuah v Attorney-General.
The second application for interim injunction decided by the Supreme Court was also presided over by Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie in the case of Theodore Kofi Atta-Quartey v Attorney-General challenging the suspension of Mrs. Justice Trokornoo and the work of the removal committee of investigation on the petition. The Supreme Court by a majority of four to one dismissed the application of Atta-Quartey on 20 May 2025 for lacking any merit under the Constitution.
The third interlocutory application to be heard by the Supreme Court in relation to the removal petitions arose out of the suit filed by the Centre for Citizenship, Constitutional and Electoral Systems (CenCES) v Attorney-General & 2 Others. Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie presided over the Court of five justices who by a majority of four to one dismissed the application for interim injunction on 21 May 2025.
The fourth suit in the Supreme Court challenging the petitions was filed by the suspended Chief Justice herself on 21 May 2025 challenging the procedure for and the availability of the determination of a prima facie case, her suspension by the President, and the participation of specified members of the removal investigation committee on grounds of conflict of interest and praying for a public hearing by the investigation committee amongst other reliefs. The suit was accompanied by an application for an interim injunction restraining the committee from proceeding to investigate the petitions pending the disposal of the substantive action.
On 28 May 2025, the Supreme Court of five justices presided over by Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie heard the application for interim injunction and unanimously dismissed it, inter alia, on grounds of lack of merit under the Constitution. This decision enabled the removal committee to continue with the investigation of the petition while the substantive suit file by her was held in abeyance to await the completion of the process for her removal from office.
The foregoing contrasts sharply with the cases in the league of the New Patriotic Party v Attorney-General (the 31 December Holiday Case) where the hearing of the interim applications were postponed to abide the hearing of the substantive suits instead of the applications for interlocutory injunction which may affect the results of the substantive actions.
PRESIDENT MAHAMA’S RESET JUDICIAL REFORM AGENDA & THE NEED FOR A SURROGATE CHIEF JUSTICE
The separation of powers doctrine enshrined in the Constitution through its structure and design aimed to ensure the liberty of citizens from oppression when power is concentrated in one center combining the executive, legislative and judicial powers of the State. The executive, legislature, and judiciary are thus separate and co-equal branches of one government of the Republic to the end that the diffusion and balancing of state power will ensure that neither branch will wield sufficient power to oppress the liberties of the sovereign people.
Consequently, the Constitution of Ghana has vested the executive authority of the Republic in the President. The executive authority extends to the execution and maintenance of the Constitution and the laws of Ghana. It provides for a Cabinet and coterie of other Ministers of State "to assist the President in determining the general policy of the Government.
The Speaker of Parliament is the head of the legislature, presides over its deliberations and chairs the Parliamentary Service Board which inter alia, “is responsible generally for the effective and efficient administration of the Parliamentary Service.”
The Chief Justice is the Head of the Judiciary in the exercise of its administrative judicial functions, presides over all the superior courts of judicature of which he is a member, and is the Chairman of the Judicial Council. The functions of the Judicial Council include, inter alia, to propose for the consideration of Government, judicial reforms to improve the level of administration of justice and efficiency in the Judiciary, and to assist the Chief Justice in the performance of his duties with a view to ensuring efficiency and effective realization of justice.
The Constitution is, therefore, endangered under Chapter Eleven on the Judiciary when the Chief Justice becomes an adjunct of the executive branch by surrendering his independence in the administration of the judiciary to the President by improper conduct or action in the normal performance of his judicial administrative duties.
While the petitions praying for the removal of Mrs. Justice Torkornoo were pending consultation with the Council of State, the President embarked on his reset agenda to reform the judiciary in violation of independence of the judiciary enshrined under 125 (3) and (4), 127, 153 and 154 of the Constitution by making public proposals for such reforms. The implication of the President’s intrusion into the domain of the Chief Justice and the Judicial Council shows that he was dissatisfied with the administration of justice under the beleaguered Chief Justice, Mrs. Justice Torkornoo's administration.
On 25 Marcy 2025, President Mahama’s Government announced that three petitions submitted for the removal of Chief Justice Trokornoo had been forwarded to the Council of State in accordance with Article 146(6) of the Constitution.
On 27 March 2025, the Executive of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) called on President Mahama at the Jubilee House. Speaking to the forum, the President emphasized the need for judicial reforms in setting up specialized fast-track courts to expeditiously fight corruption to ensure stricter accountability in public office, expedite legal proceedings and enhance the delivery of justice.
The suspension of Mrs. Justice Torkornoo as Chief Justice on 22 April 2025 and the assumption of the acting Chief Justiceship by Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie, therefore, opened the floodgates for fraternal collaboration in the President’s reset agenda between the executive and judicial branches in a manner unseen in the annals of Ghanaian history.
On 29 April 2025, seven days after the suspension of Mrs. Justice Torkornoo as Chief Justice and with Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie in the saddle as Ag. Chief Justice, President Mahama was able on the advice of the Judicial Council and in consultation with the Council of State to nominate seven new Supreme Court Justices for approval by Parliament in fulfilment of his reset reform agenda for the Judiciary.
On 3 July 2025, President Mahama swore in all the seven new nominees for Supreme Court who had been approved by Parliament as Justices of the Supreme Court to give the Ag. Chief Justice flexibility in composing panels for the adjudication of cases that come before the Supreme Court.
I know from my long experience as a Deputy-Attorney-General and an Attorney-General that it is abnormal for Ministers, Heads of Departments, Agencies, and Other Public Institutions to approach the Judicial Service directly on matters of policy affecting them without passing those concerns through the Minster responsible for the sector who may discuss them with the Minister for Justice and Attorney-General who may decide on the appropriate mode of redressing the problem. The Minister responsible for the sector may also raise whatever issues of judicial policy concerning a department, agency, or other public institution directly at the Cabinet for policy directions on the matter. The Attorney-General may be directed to raise the issue(s) as an agenda item at the Judicial Council.
It constitutes abuse of power and insubordination for any head of a public entity to bypass the Minister responsible for the sector and to arrogate to herself or himself the right to pay courtesy calls on the Head of the Judiciary to discuss matters of judicial policy. However, the assumption of office of the Ag. Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie, immediately collapsed the hallowed conventions and traditions governing the relationship between the Judiciary and the Executive branches as though the Judicial branch had become an appendage of the Executive branch of the government.
The Minister for Energy, for instance, has Cabinet responsibility for the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) with the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General serving as the principal legal advisor to the Government in matters pertaining to judicial policy. The Attorney-General is a member of the Judicial Council where policy decisions affecting the Judicial Service are determined and proposals made to the government.
Nonetheless, on 14 July 2025, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NPA made an appointment with Acting Chief Justice Baffoe-Bonnie at the premises of the Judicial Administration to discuss the possibility of creating a dedicated Petroleum Court to expedite the prosecution of fraud cases in the downstream petroleum sector. "A strong collaboration between the NPA and the judiciary will ensure that offenders are held accountable swiftly, serving both justice and deterrence," the CEO of the NPA is reported to have impressed on the Acting Chief Justice. The acting Chief Justice on his part was reported to have said that: "I support the idea of a dedicated court that can handle your cases with expedition. Criminal prosecution is not just about punishing offenders, it is also about deterrence, letting people know there are consequences for breaking the law."
On 29 July 2025, the spouse of the acting Chief Justice, Mrs. Patience Baffoe-Bonnie, who had been appointed by President Mahama as the Director-General of the Ghana Prisons Service on 17 March 2025 purported to pay a courtesy call on the Ag. Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie, at Chief Justice's Chambers in the Supreme Court premises. The public reportage of the visit was for "creating possible collaborations and discussing some operational gaps between the Ghana Prisons Service and the Judiciary, two critical pillars of the nation's criminal justice system."
In the case of the Ghana Prison Service, the Director-General abused her office in arrogating to herself the authority to call on her own spouse in her official capacity to discuss policy matters which are the remit of the Prison Service Council and the Minister for the Interior. Prison reforms are the remit of the Prison Service Council, the Minster for the Interior, the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, the Judicial Council on which the Attorney-General has a seat, and the Cabinet under the Chairmanship of the President as head of the executive branch.
The foregoing brief examination and analysis of the judicial conduct and comportment of Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie paint the picture of an acting Chief Justice bent upon ingratiating himself and his office as acting Head of the Judicial Service with the executive branch to the end that he may after facilitating the removal of the substantive Chief Justice be considered for nomination and appointment to be Chief Justice. In conducting the office of the acting Chief Justice as an adjunct of the Executive branch, Mr. Justice Paul Kawdawo Baffoe-Bonnie was counting on his family relationship with President Mahama built over the years through socialization and other group network dynamics as shown in the analysis of his life and career histories discussed hereinbefore.
Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe Bonnie achieved his lifelong ambition to be Chief Justice of Ghana when with his active involvement in presiding over the adjudication of interim applications affecting the fate of the substantive Chief Justice's petitions, he facilitated the removal committee to find that Mrs. Justice Torkornoo had misconducted herself and recommended her removal from office to the President. President John Dramani Mahama accordingly removed Mrs. Justice Torkornoo from office as Chief Justice of Ghana by warrant under his hand on 1 September 2025.
As light follows day, Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie’s family friend, the President of Ghana nominated him for approval by Parliament to be appointed as the Chief Justice of Ghana to assist in the achievement of his reset reform agenda of the judiciary on 23 September 2025.
On 2 October 2025, President Mahama swore in twenty-one (21) Court of Appeal Justices to enhance justice delivery pursuant to the advice of the Judicial Council under the Chairmanship of Ag. Chief Justice Baffoe-Bonnie.
On 20 October 2025, Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie, the Acting Chief Justice, now empowered as the nominee for the substantive office of the Chief Justice and speaking at a collaborative meeting with President Mahama, the Attorney-General, and the Auditor-General to address galamsey and financial crimes recommended that the specialized courts would hold circuit adjudications across the country.
On 23 October 2025, President Mahama swore in thirty-seven (37) new High Court Justices, including Mr. Samuel Bight Acquah, the “Animal Farm” Circuit Judge, who had retired from the Judicial Service at the mandatory age of 60 years acting on the advice of the Judicial Council under Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie’s chairmanship.
On 31 October 2025, Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie publicly advocated at the 15 maritime law seminars for judges for stronger collaboration amongst key stakeholder to establish specialized courts dedicated to maritime-related cases to ensure international trade efficiency.
MR. JUSTICE BAFFOE-BONNIE ENTHRONED AS CHIEF JUSTICE
On 17 November 2025, Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie achieved his life's desire when he was sworn into office as Chief Justice of Ghana after supervising and presiding over the removal from office of his predecessor Chief Justice. In his acceptance speech at the swearing-in ceremony, he deployed the rhetoric of upholding the law when he stated that:
"…the rule of law, respect the separation of powers and protect the Constitution. I will respect the independence of every Judge and ensure that the Judiciary remains free from improper influence. I will also insist on accountability."
He endorsed the then contested government policy on reform in legal education when he stated that: "We also cannot ignore the call for reform in legal education. The future of the Bar is the future of the Bench...."
On Saturday 29 November 2025, Chief Justice Baffoe-Bonnie joined President Mahama to celebrate his 67th birthday at a morning devotion and prayer service held at the President’s residence in a show of gratitude and loyalty to the two families and the executive branch of government. The union between the judicial and the executive branches had come full circle and finally forged through interconnected and interwoven friendship and family relationships, cemented by constitutional legality in breach of the moral and ethical rules underpinning the spirit of the 1992 Constitution.
On 14 January 2026, Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Education at his Ministry. Amongst the matters discussed included the Chief Justice emphasizing the importance of legal education, civic responsibility, and ethical training within Ghana's educational system, noting that a well-informed citizenry is fundamental to sustaining democracy and respect for the rule of law. The snag with this visit is that under the Legal Profession Act at the time the responsibility for legal education in Ghana was vested not in the Minister of Education but in the Minister for Justice who is also a member of the President’s Cabinet, a member of the Judicial Council, the General Legal Council and the Board of Legal Education which run the Ghana School of Law.
Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie after assuming the office of the substantive Chief Justice again blurred the relationship between the Judicial and Executive branches by paying his first courtesy call on the Vice-President Nana Jane Opoku-Agyeman (a former regular host on Kwasi Baffoe-Bonnie’s Radio Gold FM station) at the seat of government at Jubilee House on 17 January 2026 allegedly to brief her on the Judiciary's key achievements over the past year and to outline priority initiatives for the year ahead. According to the media reports, the visit provided him the occasion to:
"…share plans to decongest the courts through measures such as morning and afternoon court sessions, expanding Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) services, and specialized courts, including Galamsey courts, dedicated to prosecuting illegal mining cases. He also announced ongoing revisions to the Rules of Court, expected to come into force by March, as well as proposals to decentralise the Ghana Law School entrance examination by accrediting selected law faculties to administer the standardised exam nationwide."
On 21 January 2026, Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonie extended his ingratiation tour of government institutions under the executive branch to the Ministry of Finance "to discuss strengthening collaboration between the Judiciary and the Executive.". The Chief Justice’s mission was in fact to express appreciation to the Minister of Finance when he said: "We appreciate the continued support, but congestion in the courts remains a major challenge for effective justice delivery." The Chief Justice of Ghana was for the first time in our history at the Ministry of Finance to solicit for 100% IGF allocation from collected fees and levies which are supposed to be paid into the consolidated fund for the development of the ordinary Ghanaian. The Minister of Finance noticed the unusual nature of the visit and request when he stated in response that: "We are committed to working closely with the Judiciary and the Ministry of Justice. Allowing the Judiciary to retain its IGF will give it more flexibility to respond quickly to immediate needs."
The history of the Judicial Service over the years has been one of the embezzlements of attestation and other fees collected by the Service for payment into the consolidated fund for the development of the country by Chief Justice after Chief Justice captured in numerous audits reports. I supervised investigations into the embezzlement of these fees collected for the consolidated funds by the Judicial Service under various Chief Justices which went unprosecuted because of the direct involvement of Chief Justices which made it unconscionable for me to endorse the prosecution of the lowly officers taking instructions. One Chief Justice was blackmailed to resign on threat of impeachment when the government which appointed him lost power. Hopefully, Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie is ignorant of the abuses to which the IGF apportioned to the Judicial Service has been abused in the past.
On or about 22 January 2026, Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie presided over the General Legal Council (GLC) to grant accreditation to the Ghana Law Society (GLS) to issue various professional licences in Ghana and thus put a knife on the things that held the ages old Ghana Bar Association (GBA) together.
On 26 January 2026, Chief Justice Baffoe-Bonnie formally advanced the government’s reset agenda initiative by presenting a proposal directly to the Speaker of Parliament to tackle galamsey, and Public Accounts Committee infractions through prosecution in the Specialized Court Divisions.
On 5 February 2026, Chief Justice Baffoe-Bonnie finalized the transition from talking to the executive and legislative branches to agree on the reset agenda to action by officially issuing a judicial circular to establish a new Specialized High Court Division to handle matters of critical national interest. The division's mandate which mirrored the President’s demand for specialized courts was broad to cover the executive branches announced intentions to deal with corruption and public accountability cases from the Auditor-General's reports, galamsey and environmental crimes under the Minerals and Mining Act, state asset recovery, organized crime, narcotics offences, and cybersecurity cases under the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038).
The unquestioned discretionary power of Chief Justice Baffoe-Bonnie to supervise and administer the judiciary was demonstrated in the composition of the Court of Appeal in the case of Sedina Christine Tamakloe Attionu v the Republic who had been convicted of various offences in absentia by the High Court on 16 April 2024. The lawyers for the convict and fugitive filed a Notice of Appeal against the conviction and sentence on 9 May 2024 – and went to sleep.
On 10 February 2026, the Court of Appeal was constituted by Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie as Chief Justice to hear the revival of the appeal filed in the case of Sedina Christine Tamakloe Attionu v the Republic on 9 May 2024 which appeared abandoned until after the change in Government on 7 January 2025. The records of proceedings show that on 22 April 2026 the Court of Appeal presided over by Mrs. Justice Georgina Mensah-Datsa after hearing the parties made a ruling favourable to the Prosecution to study four extra volumes of Records of Appeal and adjourned sine die. On 28 May 2026 the Court of Appeal, presided over by Mrs. Georgina Mensah-Datsa again after hearing the parties granted an application by the Republic for rectification of Appeal Records.
On 9 June 2026, the appellant, Sedina Christine Tamaloe Attionu was extradited to Ghana from the United States of America. On 17 June 2026 the Court of Appeal this time presided over by Mr. Justice Emmanuel Ankamah adjourned the appeal to 30 July 2026 for judgement. On 30 July 2026, Sedina Christine Tamakloe Attionu who had just returned to the country on extradition on 9 June 2026 was acquitted and discharged by the Court of Appeal. The Attorney-General on the same day filed a notice of stay of execution and appeal as though to assuage the anger of the people of Ghana. The case is in limbo with the former fugitive and convict at liberty and may soon be forgotten by the public.
As advocated by Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie and the Executive branch, the Tribunals Bill, 2026 which was laid before Parliament on 6 July 2026 giving the Chief Justice extensive powers to set up and compose public tribunals allegedly to strengthen the delivery of justice and improve access to justice, was passed without acnational consensus on 16 July 2026, and assented to by the President on 29 August 2026 as the Tribunals Act, 2026 (Act 1181).
On 14 February 2026, Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie reciprocated his spouse’s courtesy call of 29 July 2025 with a courtesy call on her as the Director-General (D-G) of the Ghana Prisons Service and urge collaboration in capacity building. Mr. Baffoe-Bonnie "expressed concern over the overcrowding state of Ghana's prisons, highlighting it as a contributing factor for the establishment of the shift court system and the specialized courts to fast track all cases brought before the court." The visit appears to have been for the vein purpose of receiving a guard of honour as a former employee of the Ghana Prisons Service who had risen to become Chief Justice of Ghana whose spouse was simultaneous appointed D-G of the Prisons Service.
The foregoing shows Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie as an exception amongst previous Chief Justices who recognized that the judicial neutrality and comportment required of their office does not allow them to go on rounds to Ministries. Departments and Agencies of the executive branch ingratiating themselves with the institutional heads.
On 20 July 2026, a High Court convicted Bernard Antwi Boasiako (Chairman Wontumi) the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP who became the first political adversary of the government to be convicted, and sentenced him to twenty (20) years imprisonment with hard labour in circumstances that leave one feeling he was politically targeted in a prosecutorial bargain with his co-accused person to secure his conviction. The case is on appeal while the convict serves his sentence. A play back of the Victor Selormey and Dan Abodakpi criminal trials in the first term of the Kufour government of the NPP. Exactly ten days later Sedina Christine Tamakloe Attionu was acquitted by the Court of Appeal constituted by the Chief Justice.
THE EXPOSURE OF MR. JUSTICE BAFFOE-BONNIE AS AN APPENDAGE OF THE EXECUTIVE CHARIOT
With less than one year to Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie’s retirement his vaulting ambitions which made him to seek greener pastures in Nigeria, the Internal Revenue Service, the Ghana Prisons Service and finally the Judicial Service where his family network has elevated him to the highest office, overcame his reasoned judgement to throw away the hallowed traditions and conventions of the office of the Chief Justices as an independent co-equal arm of government in maintaining a discreet distance from the executive branch of government. Hopefully his reasoning and ambitions have not been distracted by the vacancy for a retired Chief Justice waiting to be filled at the Council of State.
A Chief Justice as a citizen of Ghana is guaranteed the general fundamental freedoms including the freedoms of speech, expression, and movement subject to restrictions imposed by the hallowed traditions and conventions embodied in the common law to ensure the judicial neutrality and comportment of the holder of the office of a Justice of the Superior Courts of Judicature from bringing the administration of justice into disrepute in the eyes of ordinary members of society.
Mr. Justice Paul Kwadwo Baffoe-Bonnie violated the taught tradition of the law, the hallowed traditions and conventions embodied in the common law under the 1992 Constitution regulating the neutrality, impartiality and comportment of Justices of the superior courts when on 2 September 2026 he pledged his allegiance to President Mahama as “the old man” and told the staff of the MIIF that:
"The old man's [the President Mahama’s] agenda is one that will benefit Ghana [particularly Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie and family]. We [including Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie and family] should do everything to ensure that he succeeds. If the old man [President Mahama] has decided that you [including Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie and Spouse] are the right person to be in this position out of the 30 million people, it means he has a lot of confidence in you; And so, we [including Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie and family] should do everything to make sure that his [President Mahama’s] agenda succeeds." (The words in square brackets have been supplied by me).
Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie will be retiring from the Supreme Court on 26 December 2026, so he could afford to shamelessly pledge allegiance to the executive branch under President Mahama in violation of the separation of powers doctrine under the Constitution knowing that any attempt to impeach him, within the available time to his retirement, is bound to fail with his mentor as the President before his retirement date.
CONCLUSIONS
President Mahama might have succeeded more than President Akufo-Addo or any other President did in making the administration of the Judiciary an appendage of the executive chariot with his reset reform agenda of the judiciary. The consequences to the rights and freedoms of the citizen guaranteed under the 1992 Constitution have of late become topics of discussion as citizen after citizen see those rights trampled upon with pervasive perceptions of executive abuse of power with judicial complicity.
The danger to the 1992 constitution is how far this new found ability to use the instrumentality of recruiting Chief Justices as appendages of the executive chariot begun by the Kufour government, improved upon by the Akufo-Addo government, and now perfected under the John Mhama government will be put to trample upon the sovereignty of the people contained in the preamble to the Constitution, guaranteed under Articles 1, 14, 42, and 125 thereof, to mention but a few.
While Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie remains the Chief Justice for the next three months the government has lined upon Constitutional reforms including amendments to entrenched provisions of the Constitution which will soon be put before a Parliament controlled entirely by the executive to which the Chief Justice openly pledged allegiance on 2 September 2026. The pledge of allegiance to the President by the Chief Justice also compromises the outcome of the actions pending in the Supreme Court on term limits of the President under Article 66 of the Constitution.
Whatever happens, President Mahama will soon have to replace Mr. Justice Baffoe-Bonnie as Chief Justice with another nominee. The competition to succeed the Chief Justice within the Justices of the Supreme Court have been on-going for sometime now. The Constitution apportions that responsibility to the President acting in consultation with a Council of State dominated by persons appointed by him with the approval of a Parliament which atone complete allegiance to him from its performance that will enable the façade of constitutionality and legality to be complied with outwardly.
The foregoing discourse, therefore, seeks to contribute to informing the electorate about how incrementally the independence of the administration of justice has been violated over time and urge alertness in exercising their patriotic responsibility as electors should the opportunity to express the sovereign will at any referendum called by the government on its constitutional reform agenda arise. The collapse of the legislature, the judiciary, and the executive branches under the control of the executive branch through the judicial reform reset agenda is dangerous for the survival of the 1992 Constitution. President Mahama needs to reassess the negative direction in which this enduring Fourth Republican Constitution is headed. President Mahama’s Achilles’ heel are the sycophantic lawyers putting political expediency above legal ethics.
Martin A. B. K. Amidu - 28 September 2026.