Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Etse Kwami Dafeamekpor, has criticised the suspended Chief Justice, Gertrude Torkornoo, for filing what he describes as a “facetious” affidavit in her ongoing legal challenge against impeachment proceedings.

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile programme on Saturday, the legislator and lawyer took issue with some of the claims made in the affidavit, particularly the Chief Justice’s concerns about the venue of the hearing—the Castle, a presidential annex—being a high-security zone.

“The problems with the affidavit were that it was rather facetious. Some of the matters were simply not necessary to confront the court with. Like saying the walls around the Castle were too high or it had high security—what does that have to do with the substance of the proceedings?” he asked.

He argued that raising such issues in a constitutional matter of this gravity was inappropriate and amounted to unnecessary fixations.

“You don’t come to court with these matters. These are not legal issues that should be brought before the court in a matter of this nature,” he added.

Mr Dafeamekpor defended the use of the Castle for the proceedings and further cited past disciplinary actions taken by the Chief Justice herself against lower court judges, noting that she had exercised the same Article 146 constitutional provisions she now seeks to challenge.

“She recently disciplined a High Court and Circuit Court judge over misconduct. She referred it to the Judicial Council’s Disciplinary Committee, which made adverse findings, and she fired the judge,” he said. “So why is the process suddenly flawed when it concerns her?”

Justice Gertrude Torkornoo was suspended in early May over allegations of abuse of power and professional misconduct. She has filed a legal challenge, including an affidavit questioning the legitimacy of the process and calling for live coverage of the hearings.

However, the Supreme Court has, by unanimous decision, unanimously striked out the suspended CJ’s supplementary affidavit.