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President John Dramani Mahama has nominated the acting Chief Justice, Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, for consideration as the substantive Chief Justice.
When considered by the Council of State and approved by Parliament, Justice Baffoe-Bonnie will replace Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo who was removed from office by President Mahama following a recommendation by a committee that found her guilty of misconduct.
Justice Baffoe-Bonnie was appointed to serve as acting Chief Justice following the suspension of Gertrude Torkornoo on April 23, this year. He assumed the position of acting Chief Justice by virtue of his position as the most senior Justice on the Supreme Court Bench, in line with Article 144 (6).
The nomination of Justice Baffoe-Bonnie by President Mahama is the first time in 24 years that a President elected on the ticket of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) has got the opportunity to nominate a Chief Justice since the country returned to democratic rule in 1992.
The last time was in 1995 when President Jerry John Rawlings nominated Justice I. K. Abban as Chief Justice.
Since the return of democratic rule in 1992, Ghana has had eight Chief Justices, with President Rawlings nominating two – Justice Philip Edward Archer (1991-1995) and Justice Abban (1995-2001).
President John Agyekum Kufuor of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) nominated three CJs – Justice Edward Kwame Wiredu (2001-2003), Justice George Kingsley Acquah (2003-2007) and Justice Georgina Theodora Wood (2007-2017).
The immediate past President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, also of the NPP got the opportunity to nominate three Chief Justices – Justice Sophia Akufo (2017-2020), Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah (2020-2023), and Justice Gertrude Araba Sackey Torkornoo (2023 to 2025).
Justice Baffoe Bonnie’s story began in Goaso in the Ahafo Region, where he was born on December 26, 1956, to Joseph Maxwell Baffoe-Bonnie from Sewua in the Ashanti Region, and Elizabeth Akosua Amponsah from Goaso.
He attended the Goaso RC Primary and Middle schools from 1962-1969, the Konongo Odumasi Secondary School for his General Certificate Examination (GCE) Ordinary Level from 1969 – 1974, and for his GCE Advanced Level at the same school from 1974 to 1976.
Justice Baffoe-Bonnie then proceeded to the University of Ghana to read law from 1976 to 1979, and finally had his professional law training at the Ghana School of Law from 1979 to 1981.
In law school, he was the room-mate of NPP politician, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, at Sarbah Hall, and a very good friend of former Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah.
As he put it, the three of them formed "a trio of village law students".
From those humble beginnings, he steadily climbed through every level of the judiciary.
He began as a Circuit Court Judge in Duayaw Nkwanta, served as a High Court Judge in Kumasi.
President Kufuor appointed him in 2006 as a Court of Appeal Judge and again in June 2008 as a Supreme Court Judge.
After his National Service in Accra in 1981 to 1982, he travelled to Nigeria where he taught at the Iganna Grammar School, Oyo State, Nigeria, before entering private legal practice in Sekondi and Kumasi between 1984 and 1988.
Between 1988 and 1992, he served as a Deputy Superintendent of Prisons and later as a Principal Inspector of Taxes at the then Internal Revenue Service.
In 2013, Baffoe-Bonnie was on the panel of Supreme Court Judges who ruled against a petition brought before it where the New Patriotic Party (NPP) asked for about four million votes to be scrapped for alleged tampering in the 2012 general election.
The Chief Justice nominee is married to Patience Baffoe-Bonnie, who is also a lawyer and Director-General of the Ghana Prisons Service.
The late Kwasi Sainti Baffoe-Bonnie, who owned Network Broadcasting Company Limited which run Radio Gold, was his relation.
