{"id":92906,"date":"2025-09-06T12:00:01","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T12:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=92906"},"modified":"2025-09-06T12:00:01","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T12:00:01","slug":"cj-removal-mahama-right-to-act-but-waiting-couldve-reduced-noise-dr-mensa-bonsu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=92906","title":{"rendered":"CJ removal: Mahama right to act, but waiting could\u2019ve \u2018reduced noise\u2019 \u2013 Dr Mensa-Bonsu"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 4 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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A Constitutional Theorist and Associate Professor of Law at Ashesi University has stated that President John Dramani Mahama was within his legal right to act promptly on the recommendations of a five-member committee that investigated a petition brought forward by Ghanaian citizen Daniel Ofori.<\/p>\n

Speaking on JoyNews<\/strong>\u2019 Newsfile on Saturday, September 6, Dr Maame A.S. Mensa-Bonsu said the President had no discretion but to act on the committee\u2019s binding recommendations.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf I send a petition, I shouldn\u2019t have to wait until somebody else\u2019s petition is concluded before I know the outcome of mine. The President was bound by the recommendations of that particular petition. He couldn\u2019t choose to disregard them or issue a white paper instead. Whether he waited or not, the decision would have been the same,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

President John Mahama on September 1, 2025, removed the Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo from office with immediate effect on grounds of stated misbehaviour following recommendations from a constitutional committee set up under Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution.<\/p>\n

The decision comes barely hours after the\u00a0President received the report of a committee\u00a0constituted under Article 146(6) to inquire into a petition filed by Ghanaian citizen Daniel Ofori. That was only one out of the three petitions.<\/p>\n

Dr Mensa-Bonsu noted that the committee\u2019s refusal to grant an extension or consolidate petitions did not, in itself, amount to any legal or technical error.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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However, she stated that the refusal to grant a short extension was not prudent given the weight of the matter and its national implications.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ve been six months down this road. I think one more week would not have hurt. Denying that request created unnecessary doubts around the committee\u2019s work, which could have been avoided,\u201d she argued.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On concerns that other pending petitions remained unresolved, Dr Mensa-Bonsu pointed out that constitutional provisions require secrecy, which means their existence should not have affected the respondent\u2019s reputation. The challenge, she said, arose from leaks that undermined confidentiality.<\/p>\n

She also raised questions about the efficient use of public funds.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe committee sat on public funds. They heard one petition, brought it to its conclusion, and submitted a report to the President. Since the recommendation legally bound him, I am not sure continuing the hearings was justified. While finishing all petitions might have provided a historical record, I doubt that would justify the additional cost to the public purse,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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\"CJA Constitutional Theorist and Associate Professor of Law at Ashesi University has stated that President John Dramani Mahama was within his legal right to act promptly on the recommendations of a five-member committee that investigated a petition brought forward by Ghanaian citizen Daniel Ofori.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8042,1883,117,10,9,1155],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-committee","category-national","category-news","category-politics","category-popular","category-president-john-mahama"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92906\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}