Hot SourcePrivate legal practitioner Martin Kpebu has renewed calls for sweeping constitutional reforms to safeguard Ghana’s judiciary, warning that the removal of Chief Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo has exposed deep cracks in the system.
Speaking on The Point of View on Channel One TV Monday night, Kpebu zeroed in on Article 144 of the 1992 Constitution, which gives the President the power to appoint the Chief Justice. He insists that such authority tilts the balance dangerously in favour of the Executive.
“To give judicial independence, we had started making a lot of noise, advocating since last year when her letter to Akufo-Addo came out,” Kpebu recalled.
He was blunt in his demand: “In the Constitution, we don’t want the President to be the one to appoint the CJs under Article 144. We don’t want it, so we want 144 out.”
For him, removing presidential fingerprints from the appointment process is not optional—it is the only way to ensure an impartial judiciary shielded from political intrusion.
Beyond appointments, Kpebu pressed for a clearer framework to assess judicial misconduct, arguing that the current arrangement lumps all allegations into one basket.
“One of the things we should do is that we should be able to categorise—to know what are serious offences and what are minors,” he proposed.
Without such categorisation, he warned, trivial infractions risk being treated with the same weight as grave misconduct—an imbalance that could lead to drastic consequences such as removal from office.
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