A Ghanaian citizen, Ghande Nalin Yussif, has petitioned President John Dramani Mahama formally to initiate proceedings for the removal of the Supreme Court justice and acting Chief Justice, Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, on grounds of stated misbehaviour, as provided under Article 146(1) of the 1992 constitution.
In a petition dated 6 October 2025 and received by the Office of the President on 7 October 2025, Mr Yussif invoked the constitutional procedure that empowers the president to act on allegations of misconduct or incompetence against a justice of the superior courts.
Citing Article 146(1), he reminded President Mahama that, “A justice of the superior court or a chairman of a regional tribunal shall not be removed from office except for stated misbehaviour or incompetence or on grounds of inability to perform the functions of his office arising from infirmity of body or mind.”
In the petition, Yussif alleges that Justice Baffoe-Bonnie engaged in conduct amounting to “stated misbehaviour”, which he argues contravenes multiple provisions of the Judicial Code of Conduct for Judges and Magistrates of Ghana as well as internationally accepted judicial ethics, notably the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct.
He further claims that the alleged statements by the acting Chief Justice to a plaintiff in a pending constitutional case were improper and inconsistent with the standards of judicial propriety, independence and impartiality.
Wounded public confidence
In Yussif’s words, Justice Baffoe-Bonnie’s conduct breached “multiple provisions of Ghana’s Judicial Code of Conduct, contravenes internationally recognised principles of judicial propriety, independence, impartiality, integrity and avoidance of conflicts of interest, undermines the authority and legitimacy of the judiciary, and severely damages public confidence in the administration of justice”.
The petitioner urged President Mahama to exercise his constitutional mandate by referring the matter to the appropriate tribunal for investigation.
“I therefore respectfully petition Your Excellency to take immediate steps under Article 146 of the constitution to ensure that this matter is investigated by the appropriate tribunal and that Justice Baffoe-Bonnie is removed from office should he be found culpable,” the letter says.
Yussif said he was attaching supporting documents, including “copies of media publications of the meeting and a copy of the writ issued by the plaintiffs”, to substantiate his claims.
Triumvirate
On Tuesday 23 September 2025, President John Dramani Mahama nominated Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie to serve in the position of Chief Justice of Ghana, pending approval of his appointment by the Council of State and Parliament.
Justice Baffoe-Bonnie’s nomination followed the removal of Chief Justice Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo from office as Chief Justice and head of the judiciary on 1 September 2025.
Born on 26 December 1956, Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie began his education at the Goaso Local Authority Primary and Middle Schools, completing his Middle School Leaving Certificate examinations in the late 1960s.
He attended Konongo Odumase Secondary School, where he obtained his GCE Ordinary Level and Advanced Level certificates between 1969 and 1976. He proceeded to the University of Ghana and subsequently the Ghana School of Law.
While at law school, he was roommates with the late Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, popularly known as Sir John (later general secretary of the New Patriotic Party), and close friends with the future chief justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah. He fondly describes the three of them as forming “a trio of village law students”.
Justice Baffoe-Bonnie was called to the Ghana Bar in 1983. He began his judicial career as a circuit court judge in Kumasi and later served as a high court judge in Duayaw Nkwanta. He was appointed to the Court of Appeal in 2006.
In June 2008, President John Agyekum Kufuor made him a justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana.
In 2013, Justice Baffoe-Bonnie was on the panel of Supreme Court judges that adjudicated the landmark election petition filed by the NPP, seeking to annul approximately four million votes from the 2012 general election because of alleged irregularities.
Ultimately the court dismissed the petition.
Justice Baffoe-Bonnie hails from Sewua in the Bosomtwe District of the Ashanti Region through his father, Opanyin Baffoe-Bonnie, and from Breman in Kumasi through his mother, Ama Kyerewaa.
