Former Attorney General Betty Mould-Iddrisu has said “we are watching” Chief Justice nominee Gertrude Torkornoo “very closely because Ghana has to be rescued from the current administration of justice”.

Reacting to the news of President Nana Akufo-Addo’s nomination of the Supreme Court judge as a prospective replacement for current Chief Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah, who goes on retirement on 24 May 2023, Mrs Mould-Iddrisu told Korku Lumor in an interview on Class91.3FM’s morning show on Wednesday, 26 April 2023 that she must defend justice in an impartial and professional manner if she gets the nod.

In a letter to the Council of State, President Akufo-Addo said Justice Torkornoo who has been “on the Supreme Court for the last four years and has been a member of the Judiciary for the last 19 years, is duly qualified and eminently fit to discharge the functions of Chief Justice.”

Regarding her nomination, Mrs Mould-Iddrisu said: “We knew it was coming and we’ve been following the event and she should try and defend justice in an impartial [and] professional manner.

“I hope she does, I hope she lives up to the maxim that women are better administrators than men”, she noted.

“I know she knows something about intellectual property rights and gender rights because she worked at FIDA with some of us some years ago, so, let’s see what she can do”, Mrs Mould-Iddrisu added.

Profile of Justice Gertrude Torkornoo

Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkornoo (born 11 September 1962) is a Ghanaian judge. She was nominated to the Supreme Court in November 2019 and received parliamentary approval in December 2019. She was sworn in on 17 December 2019.

She has been on the bench in Ghana since 2004 and was appointed a Supreme Court judge in 2019. She was one of the first Justices of the Commercial Division of the High Court and has been active in the core reform agenda and activities of the Judiciary and Judicial Service of Ghana since 2005.

Early Life and Education

Gertrude Torkornoo hails from Winneba in the Central Region of Ghana. She attended Wesley Girls’ High School where she obtained her ordinary level certificate and Achimota School for her advanced level certificate.

She is an alumni of the University of Ghana and 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.

Prior to joining Fugar & Co., a law firm in Accra as an associate, Justice Torkornoo worked as a volunteer at the FIDA Legal Aid Service and did an internship with Nabarro Nathanson in London. She returned to the firm (Fugar & Co.) in 1994 to become a director.

In January 1997, she co-founded Sozo Law Consult where she worked as Managing Partner until 14 May 2004 when she was appointed a Justice of the High Court of Ghana.

She worked as a High Court judge until October 2012 when she was elevated to the Court of Appeal. Justice Torkornoo was nominated to the Supreme Court of Ghana in November 2019.

She was sworn into office on 17 December 2019