Chief Justice nominee Sophia Akuffo has urged parliament to refrain from slashing funds allocated to the judiciary.

She explained that cutting the budget that has been prepared and presented to parliament will affect justice delivery as enough funds are needed to provide resources across the country.

Justice Akuffo, who appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Friday, June 16, expressed displeasure about the act, explaining: “We [Judiciary] need more money and our budget should not be cut.

“If we get all the money that we need to do the work that we need to do it will ensure that all the more, sooner rather than later, we will be able to do all the training we need to do for judges [among others] so that we improve on the quality of service from the lower courts all the way up. We will be able to provide all the facilities that are prerequisite for running a good court where everything works as it should be with good technical assistance and research for judges and all that to come up earlier in judgements,” she further explained.

Sophia Akuffo holds a Masters in Law (LLM) degree from Harvard University in the United States.

She has been a member of the Governing Committee of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute and the Chairperson of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Task Force.

In January 2006, she was elected one of the first judges of the African Court on Human and People’s Rights. Initially elected for two years, she was subsequently re-elected until 2014 and is at present serving as Vice-President of the Court.

She has written The Application of Information & Communication Technology in the Judicial Process – the Ghanaian Experience, a presentation to the African Judicial Network Ghana (2002). If confirmed by parliament, Justice Sophia Akuffo will be the fifth Chief Justice under the fourth republic after Isaac Kobina Abban who served between 1995 and 2001.

Edward Kwame Wiredu also served between 2001 and 2003 while George Kingsley Acquah was head of the judiciary from 2003 to 2007 before Georgina Theodora Wood was made CJ from 2007 to 2017.

If approved, Justice Akuffo will be the 13th Chief Justice of the history of the Republic of Ghana.