Search for new Chief Justice: Why Justice Sophia Akuffo will sail through

Barring any last minute changes, the senior most Supreme Court judge Justice Sophia Akuffo will be announced as Ghana’s next Chief Justice as Georgina Theodora Wood bows out of office in June.

StarrFMonline.com sources say Justice Akuffo, who has just two years to serve before retirement, will likely be succeeded upon her retirement by Justice Jones Dotse who still has five years to serve.

Her name has been submitted to the Council of State for advice.

StarrFMonline.com sources say Justice Akuffo became a compromised choice for the President after advocates for Justice Dotse and Justice Enin Yeboah could not surpass each other in convincing him.

According to Article 144 (1) of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution: “The Chief Justice shall be appointed by the President acting in consultation with the Council of State and with the approval of Parliament.”

Justice Akuffo is however believed to be a distant relative of President Akufo-Addo.

Profile of Justice Sophia Akuffo

Sophia A.B. Akuffo has been a Judge of the Supreme Court of Ghana for the past two decades.

Sophia Akuffo trained as a lawyer under Nana Akufo-Addo who had her Masters in Law (LLM) from the Havard 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).

One of her famous cases is when she presided over the Montie 3 in 2016.