Torkonoo’s ECOWAS Court Gamble Hits Procedural Wall

By Prince Ahenkorah

The legal odyssey of Ghana’s suspended former Chief Justice, Gertrude Torkonoo, took another procedural twist this week at the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice, where judges granted the state’s belated entry into a case that has become a test of judicial independence and executive power.
In a ruling that legal observers say tilts the procedural playing field, the court admitted an amended defence filed by the Attorney-General’s office nearly three weeks after the mandated deadline. The decision allows the government to argue its case on the merits after a late filing that Torkonoo’s legal team had sought to have struck out.
The case originally filed before the Human Rights Court in Ghana stems from Torkonoo’s suspension and eventual removal under Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution. She argues that the process violated her fundamental human rights, a claim that has now found its way to the region’s most authoritative human rights tribunal following her unsuccessful domestic challenge.
The procedural dispute centres on a directive from the ECOWAS court, issued after it granted Torkonoo leave to amend her application. The state was given 30 days to file its defence. That deadline expired on March 1, 2026 without any response from the Attorney-General’s office.
It was only after receiving a hearing notice that the state, through Deputy Attorney-General Dr. Justice Srem Sai, filed its defence, accompanied by a request for the court to exercise its discretion and admit the submission out of time.
Torkonoo’s counsel objected, arguing that no formal application for extension had been made and that the defence was incurably late. They urged the court to strike it out.
Dr. Srem Sai offered a defence of his own: the state had not been served with the court’s directive and was unaware of the deadline. He insisted that once the order came to light, the defence was filed “promptly” a claim the court subjected to close scrutiny.
Judges noted that under common law principles, counsel present when an order is delivered are deemed to have notice. State representatives were in court when the directive was issued.
The court ultimately stopped short of punishing the state’s tardiness. Instead, it granted the extension of time, admitted the amended defence, and gave Torkonoo seven days to file her response.
While the applicant did not oppose the state’s oral request for an extension, her legal team secured leave to reply a minor concession that preserves her right to challenge the government’s substantive arguments.
“The proper procedure would have been for the state to formally apply for an extension,” the court observed, signalling irritation with the executive’s handling of the matter, but stopping short of striking out the defence.
For Torkonoo, the case has never been merely about procedural compliance. Her amended application challenges the legality of her removal, seeking redress from a regional court after exhausting domestic remedies. It is a high-stakes gambit that has thrust Ghana’s judicial tenure rules into an international arena.
The government, for its part, has consistently defended the suspension and dismissal as constitutional acts, properly executed under Article 146. But its procedural missteps in this case—missing deadlines, failing to file formal applications have handed Torkonoo’s legal team a running narrative of executive overreach meeting administrative laxity.
Now, with the state’s defence admitted and Torkonoo’s seven-day clock ticking to file her reply, the case moves to the merits phase. For the former Chief Justice, vindication if it comes will have to be won on substance, not on the state’s procedural stumbles.
The court’s indulgence of the government’s late filing, however, has left some observers questioning whether the ECOWAS tribunal, long seen as a bulwark against executive impunity, is showing unusual deference to a member state.
For now, the judges have given both sides their day. Whether that day delivers justice or further delay remains to be seen.