Parliament vets Sophia Akuffo June 19

Chief Justice nominee Sophia Akuffo is expected to be vetted by the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Monday June 19.

Justice Akuffo was nominated as Chief Justice following the retirement of her predecessor Theodora Georgina Wood.

Minority Chief Whip Muntaka Mubarak Mohammed told Citi News: “We are changing our modalities a little bit, but we have proposed the 19th and 20th June. Unless there are some changes, it is going to be 19th and 20th of June. We have decided that we will take CVs, and then five days after we have taken CVs, we begin working. So if we said 19th and 20th and say, for example, the CV of the Chief Justice comes on the 17th, we’ll give ourselves five days. So if anyone delays CVs, then he or she will be delaying the vetting.”

Sophia Akuffo holds a Masters in Law (LLM) degree from Harvard 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). If confirmed by parliament, Justice Sophia Akuffo will be the fifth Chief Justice under the fourth republic after Isaac Kobina Abban who served between 1995 and 2001.

Edward Kwame Wiredu also served between 2001 and 2003 while George Kingsley Acquah was head of the judiciary from 2003 to 2007 before Georgina Theodora Wood was made CJ from 2007 to 2017.

If approved, Justice Akuffo will be the 13th Chief Justice of the history of the Republic of Ghana.