As it was communicated earlier by the 26-member Appointments Committee of Parliament to vet the incoming Chief Justice on Monday, 19, there has been an immediate changes on the date during a press briefing held yesterday by the 1st Deputy Speaker.

Hon. Joe Osei Wusu who doubles as 1st Deputy Speaker and Chairman for the Appointments Committee, has afficially announced the committee’s readiness to host Justice Sophia Akuffo on Friday 16, 2017, instead of next week Monday, 19.

According to the Chairman of the Committee, they are already assessing past judgments of Justice Akuffo and her publications to be better informed about her performance at the Supreme Court.

She was scheduled to face the appointments committee on Monday June, 19, but the date for vetting has been moved forward by the committee, due to the fact that, the judicial service, as a matter of urgency, needs a Chief Justice to ascend and fill in the vacuum caused by the Former Chief Justice’s departure.

This time around, each member of the committee will be granted 20 minutes each to question Mrs. Akuffo and we have also expanded our team by inviting in four other personnel from the Judiciary to join in with their expertise as we take the Chief Justice nominee through our vetting process.

President Akufo-Addo appointed Justice Akuffo to replace chief justice Georgina Theodora Wood who retired on June 7, 2017.

Profile

Sophia A.B. Akuffo has been a Judge of the Supreme Court of Ghana for the past two decades.

Sophia Akuffo 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).

One of her famous cases is when she presided over the Montie 3 in 2016.

Story: Blessing Roselyn Boateng

 

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