The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has accused Chief Justice His Lordship Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie of partisanship and of acting as a “political stooge” of government, after he defended the decision to issue special warrants for vacation trials in two High Courts.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the NPP described the CJ’s public defence of the warrants as “unconvincing, legally unreasonable and revealing of the very partisan disposition it seeks to deny”.
According to the NPP, 29 courts are currently sitting as vacation courts across the country.
The settled practice, the party said, is for vacation courts to hear only motions and urgent interlocutory applications, usually virtually, while substantive trials are suspended until the legal term reopens.
“Yet out of these twenty-nine courts, only two have been singled out and granted special warrants to conduct full criminal trials requiring the physical appearance of accused persons and counsel,” the statement said.
The NPP named the two judges as Justices Achibonga and Kocuvie-Tay, adding that “every one of the affected cases is a prosecution of persons associated with the NPP.”
“Why only these two courts, and why only these cases?” the party asked.
“If the vacation can pause the trial of a murder suspect, why can it not pause the trial of political opponents of the government? This selective urgency shows that the object is not justice but the incarceration of NPP personalities.”
The party likened the situation to “the same indecent haste” with which the trial of Ashanti Regional Chairman Bernard Antwi Boasiako, known as Wontumi, was rushed to conviction.
The NPP noted that by letters dated 5th August 2026, lawyers for the accused, including Messrs Zoe, Akyea & Co. and Messrs Dame & Partners, informed the CJ of their unavailability and asked him to withdraw the warrants.
On 10th August 2026, the Ghana Bar Association also wrote to the CJ, reminding him that vacation courts do not conduct trials where counsel have given notice of unavailability.
“Yet the warrants stand, and the Chief Justice has instead gone public to defend the indefensible, treating the united voice of the Bar with such disdain,” the NPP said.
The party cited an incident in court where one of the vacation trial judges gave an accused person an ultimatum: find new counsel within days or personally cross-examine a prosecution witness.
“What happened today was not case management. It was the strangulation of the fair trial rights of a citizen,” the NPP stated, referencing Article 19(2)(f) of the 1992 Constitution.
The NPP also raised concerns about the manner in which Justice Baffoe-Bonnie assumed office, following what it called “the unprecedented and contested removal of Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo.”
“His confirmation was pushed through over the objection and walkout of the Minority in Parliament. He is, in every practical sense, the product of a partisan route to office,” the statement said.
“Even so, the NPP expected him to act with strict independence, as the Constitution demands. Instead, his conduct in facilitating these selective trials, in apparent concert with the Attorney-General’s agenda against NPP personalities, betrays that expectation.
“The Judiciary must never become an annex of the Office of the Attorney-General,” the party added.
The NPP is calling on the Chief Justice to “immediately withdraw the vacation trial warrants,” and to “heed the Ghana Bar Association’s petition and restore settled vacation court practice.”
The party is also demanding that the ultimatum issued to accused persons be rescinded.
“Judicial power, like executive power, is held in trust for the people of Ghana,” the NPP said, citing Article 125(1).
It also reminded the Chief Justice that “retirement from office confers no immunity from that accountability. History, and where appropriate the law, will render its verdict”.
The NPP stressed that it remains committed to the rule of law and “shall resist, by every lawful means, the weaponisation of the courts against our members and against any Ghanaian.”