Former Auditor-General Daniel Yao Domelevo, who was a member of the committee that handled the petitions against former Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, has responded to concern by Torkornoo about the choice of venue for her petition hearing.
The former CJ at a press conference in June 2025 claimed that the choice of venue for her petition hearing was only meant to intimidate her, describing the place as “cordoned high security zone.”
“The work of the Committee is being conducted in a cordoned high security zone on Castle Drive, Osu when all article 146 since proceedings since 1993 have been held in facilities of the Judicial Service.
“It is hard not to reach the conclusion that the choice of venue against the backdrop of secrecy of proceedings is intended to intimidate me and to prevent any citizen of Ghana from knowing how the proceedings are conducted,” she noted.
However, in an interview with KSM posted via his YouTube channel, Tuesday, October 7, 2025 Yao Domelevo dismissed Torkornoo’s claim that the committee chose Adu Lodge to intimidate her, arguing that it is not a security zone.
“Maybe you can take a tour to Adu lodge and see there’s no resemblance of gun and etc over there at all,” he stated.
The Chairman of EOCO Board further explained that Adu Lodge was chosen as a “better place” for the hearing because it was in-camera to avoid public attention.
“And again because of the requirement that the proceedings should be in-camera, we thought that was a better place because people will not come and mount their camera and be shooting, saying these are panel members, this is the respondent going and so we thought it was a better appropriate place,” he remarked.
He stressed that the former Chief Justice had no locus to determine location for the petition hearing because the Committee formed to hear the petition was not a Chief Justice committee, rather a Presidential Committee and the President had the sole mandate to choose venue for the petition hearing.
“So, one may ask why not the court complex or the judicial service. The answer is very simple. All other committees under article 146 are Chief Justice Committee. It is the Chief Justice who sets up the Committee so he decides where they sit.
“But when the petition is against the Chief Justice, it is the Presidential Committee. It is the President who sets up the Committee. So, it is not for the Chief Justice to tell us where to sit, it is for the President to tell us where we should sit so they found a place for us,” he added.
Daniel Domelevo noted that it would have been “demeaning” for the former Chief Justice to meet the Committee at the court complex since at the time she was the Head of Judiciary.
“Thirdly, this was the Chief Justice meeting the Committee and if you should do that in a court complex, it is a bit demeaning, it’s like she’s appearing at her own place where in the past she was the overall boss and now she’s appearing there so we thought it was not the best place,” the former Auditor-General explained.
Source: 3news.com (“And again because of the requirement that the proceedings should be in-camera, we thought that was a better place because people will not come and mount their camera and be shooting, saying these are panel members, this is the respondent going and so we thought it was a better appropriate place,” he remarked.
He stressed that the former Chief Justice had no locus to determine location for the petition hearing because the Committee formed to hear the petition was not a Chief Justice committee, rather a Presidential Committee and the President had the sole mandate to choose venue for the petition hearing.
“So, one may ask why not the court complex or the judicial service. The answer is very simple. All other committees under article 146 are Chief Justice Committee. It is the Chief Justice who sets up the Committee so he decides where they sit.
“But when the petition is against the Chief Justice, it is the Presidential Committee. It is the President who sets up the Committee. So, it is not for the Chief Justice to tell us where to sit, it is for the President to tell us where we should sit so they found a place for us,” he added.
Daniel Domelevo noted that it would have been “demeaning” for the former Chief Justice to meet the Committee at the court complex since at the time she was the Head of Judiciary.
“Thirdly, this was the Chief Justice meeting the Committee and if you should do that in a court complex, it is a bit demeaning, it’s like she’s appearing at her own place where in the past she was the overall boss and now she’s appearing there so we thought it was not the best place,” the former Auditor-General explained.
Source: 3news.com By Raphael Ghartey
