It has emerged that the immediate past Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood turned down an offer from former President John Agyekum Kufuor to become a Supreme Court Judge in order to be part of a review panel in the infamous trial of Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata.
“In that crises situation where we did not have panel to do the review of the Tsatsu Tsikata’s trial ,two judges were tapped from the Court of Appeal to go to the Supreme Court; one was Justice Georgina Wood and Justice Afreh [but] Justice Wood turned it down” private legal practitioner”, Ace Ankomah revealed.
“She went to the Supreme Court later and then became Chief Justice under the same government that she had turned down originally [but] people do not know this. …We must give honour to whom honour is due” he pointed out on Joy FM’s Newsfile analysis show.
“So when she is criticized I think some of the criticisms are based on arrogant ignorance as to who she is and her standing. A lot of pressure was brought on her and I will also reveal one thing because we are given honour to whom honour is due” he added.
“The attacks on her went international. Some article clearly written in Ghana here was planted in a newspaper in Kenya at the time when she was helping the Kenyans to establish their Supreme Court. …It was a nasty article obviously written from here” Lawyer Ace Ankomah alleged
“The Bar Association had to respond to it and I had the duty to draft the statement for the Bar and responding to that”, he explained.
The first female retired Ghanaian Chief Justice, who is also a trained police officer, revealed she nearly forced herself out from office due to political pressure from National Democratic Congress (NDC) under the presidency of the late President Prof. J. E.A. Mills.
Speaking at her 70th birthday and thanksgiving service, Justice Georgina Theodora Wood revealed it took intervention of some Supreme Court judges to stay in office till her retirement age.
Join GhanaStar.com to receive daily email alerts of breaking news in Ghana. GhanaStar.com is your source for all Ghana News. Get the latest Ghana news, breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment and more about Ghana, Africa and beyond.
