President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has urged the Appointments Committee of Parliament to play its patriotic duties by approving his Supreme Court justice nominees; Justice Ernest Yao Gaewu and Justice George Kingsley Koomson.
The two justices were among four justices nominated by the president in July 2022 for elevation to the country’s apex court.
They were nominated alongside Justices Frances Barbara Ackah-Yensu and Samuel Kwame Adibo Asiedu, both previously being Court of Appeal justices who were approved by Parliament’s Appointments Committee before the House went on the Christmas recess, leaving the fate of justices Gaewu and Koomson on the balance.
President Akufo-Addo made the appeal during the swearing-in of Justices Ackah-Yensu and Adibo Asiedu at the Presidency on December 28, 2022.
Addressing the importance and the need for the occasion, the president said, “I perform the most important act of the administration of the third arm of government which is the swearing into Office of two Justices of the Supreme Court and I refer to Justice Frances Barbara Ackah-Yensu and Justice Samuel Kwame Adibo Asiedu who would be appointed to succeed two justices of the Supreme Court; the late Justice Samuel Marful-Sau who passed away on August 10, 2021, and Justice Yaw Apaw who retired on August 2, 2021.”
During the swearing-in which is in accordance with the stringent details of Article 144 Clause 2 of the Constitution of Ghana, the president reiterated his confidence in the remaining two nominees saying they were rigorously selected through the Judicial Council and in consultation with the Council of State and therefore urged Parliament to have them approved.
“I, therefore, await Parliament’s approval of the two remaining nominees; Justice Ernest Yao Gaewu and Justice George Kingsley Koomson to fill the vacancies created as a result of the retirement of Justice Clemence Honyenuga which took place on September 24, 2022, and Justice Agnes Dordzie who retired on October 2, 2022.”
