President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has confirmed a justice of the Supreme Court, Sophia Akuffo as a “worthy successor” to the outgoing Chief Justice.
She would be the second female Chief Justice, pending approval, when Mrs Georgina Theodora Wood retires in June this year.
“I have no doubt that Justice Akuffo will be a worthy successor to Chief Justice Wood and uphold jealously the independence of the Judiciary,” President Akufo-Addo declared on Friday as he outdoored Justice Akuffo as the next head of the judiciary – the third arm of government.
Making indirect reference to the recent judicial scandal that rocked the nation, the president charged her to preside over a judiciary that will command the respect of all by delivering quality justice.
“I expect discipline, fairness, integrity and the continuing modernisation of judicial activities to be the hallmarks of her tenure as Chief Justice, if she is so endorsed by the constitutional bodies,” President Akufo-Addo stated.
The president, an astute lawyer himself, remarked, “The Judiciary has the onerous responsibility of being the bulwark of the defence of the liberties and the rights of our people. It can only discharge that responsibility effectively if it has the unalloyed respect of the people.”
He noted that his government is determined to build a “new Ghanaian civilisation, where the rule of law is not a slogan, but an operating principle for the development of our State, where the separation of powers is real and meaningful, where the liberties and rights of our people are fully protected, and where law and order provide a firm basis for our social and economic development, so that the dreams of prosperity that animated the great patriots, who are the founders of our nation, can find expression in our generation.”
Sophia A. B. Akuffo has been a Judge of the Supreme Court of Ghana for the past two decades. She trained as a lawyer under Nana Akufo-Addo who had her Masters in Law (LLM) from the Havard 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 Peoples’ 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).
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