[ 2017-05-11 ]

Justice Sophia AB Akuffo

Sophia Akuffo tipped for Chief Justice job
Ghanaians are likely to have another female Chief
Justice (CJ) as the Council of State considers the
nomination of President Akufo-Addo for the coveted
position.

DAILY GUIDE’s reliable source indicates that the
next Chief Justice to succeed outgoing Georgina
Theodora Wood may be Justice Sophia AB Akuffo, who
is seen as the most senior member at the apex
court, having joined the bench in 1997.

According to the source, Justice Akuffo beat two
other contenders – Justices Jones Victor Mawulom
Dotse and Kwasi Anin-Yeboah for the topmost
position of the judiciary because of her wealth of
experience and her impeccable contributions to the
country’s jurisprudence.

President Akufo-Addo is said to have submitted her
name to the Council of State for advice after
which it would be made public – subject to
approval by the Council – before parliament
finally gives its nod to the nomination.

She was said to have been appointed from private
practice to the Supreme Court at a very young age
in May, 1997 by the then head of state, Jerry John
Rawlings.

She was not part of the panel that heard the 2013
landmark election petition filed by three
prominent figures of the New Patriotic Party
(NPP), including the then standard bearer, Nana
Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo (now president).

Justice Akuffo holds an LLB in Law from the
University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, and an LLM
Master degree in Law from Harvard Law School,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

Her publications include ‘The Application of
Information & Communication Technology in the
Judicial Process – The Ghanaian Experience,’
presented to the African Judicial Network, Ghana
(2002).

Current Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood is
leaving office in June after 10 years’ service
as the head of the third arm of government – the
Judiciary.

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. 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. She was initially elected for
two years and was subsequently re-elected until
2014.

One of her famous cases is when she presided over
the Montie 3 trial in 2016. The Montie 3 were a
presenter and two panelists of Montie FM – a
pro-National Democratic Congress (NDC) radio
station – who were charged by the Supreme Court
of contempt.

Source - dailyguide.com

... go Back