Ghana’s President John Mahama has fired the country’s Chief Justice, Gertrude Torkornoo, following allegations of using public funds for private trip. Ms Torkornoo, Ghana’s third female chief justice, has also been removed as a judge of the Supreme Court following the allegations.

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Justice Torkornoo has however described her allegations and removal from office politically motivated. She was nominated in 2023 by former President Nana Akufo-Addo; and she would be the first sitting chief justice to be investigated and dismissed.

She had previously survived a removal request under Akufo-Addo, who found the petition to have “several deficiencies.” She had been accused of bias in some of her rulings by the current governing party, which was then in opposition.

Justice Torkornoo who had been on suspension since April after the complaints were lodged was said to have been fired on recommendation by an inquiry. But critics fear her swift removal from office sets a worrying precedent and undermines judicial independence.

In Nigeria, highly placed public officials are hardly removed despite petitions and indictment of wrongdoings.

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According to secondary sources, Mahama’s office said on Monday that a president-appointed commission then found that “grounds of stated misbehavior had been established and recommended her removal from office.”

The presidency said Mahama was required to act in accordance with the committee’s recommendations.

Local news reports have it that an inquiry concluded that evidence of unlawful expenditure of public funds was linked to her private travel. Her spouse and daughter were reportedly paid allowances using public funds during a private trip with her husband to Tanzania in 2023 and another to the US with her daughter.

She also faced allegations of interference in appointments by sidestepping procedures for appointing Supreme Court judges and abusing powers in the transfer of a judiciary employee.

Chief justices in Ghana enjoy security of tenure – meaning they can only be removed from office on a few grounds, which include incompetence and misbehaviour.

However, Ms Torkornoo’s legal representatives have dismissed the basis for her removal.

In April, the opposition New Patriotic Party condemned her suspension, describing it as a political witch hunt and an attempt to undermine judicial independence. Multiple lawsuits challenging the removal process were unsuccessful.

Critics argue Ms Torkornoo’s removal could erode the independence of the judiciary and allow the executive branch to exert undue influence over judges.

A former deputy attorney general, Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, has criticised the decision to remove the chief justice saying it set a “dangerous precedent,” according to agency reports.

“The petition that I read showed no proper grounds to warrant her removal… If the threshold is what we read in the petition, then I fear for the future of the judiciary,” he is quoted as saying.