ECOWAS Court rejects Torkornoo’s bid to halt removal inquiry

The ECOWAS Court has dismissed former Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo’s request to temporarily stop the fact-finding committee examining the petition seeking her removal.

In its ruling delivered on Wednesday, the Community Court of Justice held that the application for a provisional measure failed to meet the threshold required to pause the committee’s work.

The court noted that Justice Torkornoo filed her request more than eight weeks after her suspension and over six weeks after the committee had already begun its hearings.

According to the panel, the timing undermined any claim of urgency or imminent harm, which are necessary conditions for granting interim protection.

The court said the applicant’s own filings defeated the imminence and exceptional circumstance needed for the proceedings to be frozen pending the determination of the substantive case.

Justice Torkornoo had argued that the provisional measure was necessary to safeguard her rights and prevent irreparable harm while the main case continued before the regional court.

The request sought to temporarily halt the operations of the fact-finding body established to review a petition calling for her removal from office.

The judgment means the committee’s work will continue uninterrupted as the substantive matter proceeds.

The Attorney-General has been directed to file a response to the former Chief Justice’s substantive case within 30 days.

The court will then fix a date for hearing on the main application, which challenges the legality of the processes leading to Justice Torkornoo’s suspension and the subsequent inquiry.