President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has nominated Gertrude Araba Esabaa Torkornoo, a Supreme Court Justice, to be Ghana’s next Chief Justice.
Her nomination is subject to Parliament’s approval.
If approved, Justice Torkornoo will succeed Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah, who will step down as Chief Justice on May 24, when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70 for Justices of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
President Akufo-Addo stated in a letter to the Council of State that Justice Torkornoo, who has been “on the Supreme Court for the last four (4) and a member of the Judiciary for the last nineteen (19) years, is duly qualified and eminently fit to discharge the functions of Chief Justice.”
Following in the footsteps of Justices Georgina Theodora Wood and Sophia Akuffo, Justice Torkornoo will be the third female Chief Justice in Ghana’s history.
Justice Torkornoo will be President Akufo-Addo’s third appointment to the position of Chief Justice since taking office in January 2017.
Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkornoo is a Ghanaian Judge born on September 11, 1962. In November 2019, she was nominated to the Supreme Court, receiving parliamentary approval in November 2019. She took her oath of office on December 17, 2019.
She has served as a Judge in Ghana since 2004 and was one of the first Justices of the High Court’s Commercial Division. She been involved in the core reform agenda and activities of Ghana’s Judiciary and Judicial Service since 2005.
Gertrude Torkornoo is from Winneba in the Central Region. She received her ordinary level certificate from Wesley Girls’ High School and her advanced level certificate from Achimota School.
She is a University of Ghana alumnus who graduated from the Ghana School of Law in 1986.
In 2001, she obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in International Law and Organization from the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), part of Erasmus University in the Netherlands. In 2011, she graduated from Golden Gate University, USA with an LLM in Intellectual Property Law 4.
