Suspended Chief Justice has suggested that the location for the five-member committee hearing the petitions for her possible removal echoes the darkest history of the country, where some superior court judges were abducted and murdered in 1981.
She strongly declared the selected location for the hearing was purposely done to intimidate her, recalling how her late uncle, one of the judges who she was staying with at the time, was murdered.
Madam Torkornoo noted that the Adu Lodge was used in planning the 1981 murder of judges, including her uncle, and so in her view, it was an agenda to frustrate and intimidate her.
She referred to the process of systematic intimidation and fundamental breaches of natural justice in her first public address since suspension in April.
She also disclosed that Adu Lodge “featured very prominently in the planning of the murder of judges on June 30, 1981”, adding “that terrible event in our nation’s history”.
Madam Torkornoo further highlighted that the uncle who was murdered was her uncle and guardian, with whom she was living when he was abducted in 1981. She had just entered the University of Ghana in September 1980.
‘’I need to make the disclosure at this point that the Adu Lodge facility that I am being tried in featured very prominently in the planning of the murder of Judges on June 30th 1981, and this can be read about in the Special Investigative Report on that terrible event in our national history. It will be recalled that Major Sam Acquah, the military officer who was killed with the three High Court Judges, had been the Director of Human Resources of GIHOC. He was my uncle and my guardian when I entered the University of Ghana in September 1980. I was also living with him at the time he was abducted and murdered. Was Adu Lodge chosen for this inquiry to make me feel insecure? I think so. And I continue to hold the view that there is no reason to hold a quasi judicial hearing behind the high walls of Adu Lodge.’’
She also alleged the violations she suffered since the hearing started have not stopped but escalated beyond anything she could have imagined as possible in justice delivery.
These violations include:
- the Committee’s refusal, in breach of the rules of natural justice, to recognise my counsel on the first day of proceedings simply because I was not personally present, and proceeding to fix hearing dates and make arrangements for the hearing without involving my counsel, even though he was physically present;
- the committee’s failure to indicate the specific allegations in respect of which a prima case has been established as well as the reasons for same, to enable me to determine my legal rights or adequately prepare a defence to the charges against me;
- the committee’s decision to permit two of the petitioners (Mr. Daniel Ofori and Shining Stars) not to testify to enable me cross-examine them on their petitions;
- a denial of opportunity to be in the hearing room with my husband or a close family member;
- a thorough search on my body and handbags in violation of protocols and courtesies extended to the Chief Justice in honour of the country, domestically and internationally;
- the conduct of the hearings in a cordoned high security zone on Castle Drive, Osu, when all Article 146 proceedings since 1993, had been held in a judicial facility at the Judicial Service, Accra. It is clear that the choice of venue, against the background of the secrecy of proceedings, was intended to intimidate me and to prevent any citizen of Ghana from knowing how the proceedings are being conducted.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
