Don’t give people money to be given to judges; predators pocket it – Justice Torkornoo

Chief Justice nominee, Justice Gertrude Araba Esabaa Torkornoo, has advised the public against the act of giving money to certain people to be given to judges to influence their decisions.

In responding to questions posed to her earlier today, Friday, May 26, 2023, by the Appointments Committee of Parliament, she stated that the perceived corruption in the legal system is fueled by "judicial predators" and not the judges.

“On the issue of corruption within the judicial, from my experience, I have come to understand how these perceptions abound.

"As I said, the judicial service has more than 7,000 employees, only 400 of us are part of the judicial. Anyone who presents themselves as able to take money on behalf of a judge gives that perception.

"Very often, some judges including those of us with the reputation of being unbribable, find ourselves in that corner where people go out and present they are going to give you money and others believe it because they don’t know it. So, they don’t know that you are unbribable. So, there is a whole market, we call it judicial predators. There is a whole predatory group around our function and that is something that we constantly trying to address in our study of ethics both for judges and for stuff,” she said.

The Chief Justice Nominee, Justice Gertrude Araba Esabaa Torkornoo, remained confident in the judicial system and thus advised the public to desist from giving people money for judges to rule in their favour.

"So, there are interventions just they have to be deepened. And then the community should understand and this is something we will want to tell Ghanaians that for every 10 people who tell you to give me money for a judge, you can be sure that 9 likely will go into that person’s pocket and not to the judge. So please, don’t give money to people to take to judges because it is their market,” she advised.

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