The Supreme Court of Ghana has dismissed an application filed by Ofoase-Ayirebi MP Kojo Oppong Nkrumah seeking to temporarily stop selected High Court judges from conducting criminal trials during the ongoing legal vacation.
Justice Gabriel Pwamang, sitting as a single judge of the Supreme Court, delivered the ruling on Friday, August 21, 2026, rejecting Oppong Nkrumah’s request for an interlocutory injunction. The decision means the affected High Court trials can continue under administrative warrants issued by Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie.
According to reports from the court, Justice Pwamang held that the applicant had failed to establish a sufficiently serious constitutional question to justify granting the temporary injunction.
Oppong Nkrumah had approached the apex court challenging administrative warrants issued by the Chief Justice allowing selected High Court judges to continue hearing criminal matters during the judicial vacation, which runs from August 1 to September 30, 2026.
The former Information Minister argues that allowing selected cases to continue while others remain suspended during the vacation could amount to selective justice and potentially violate provisions of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution.
His lawyers, led by Frank Davies, had therefore asked the Supreme Court to halt the operation of the warrants until the substantive constitutional case is fully determined.
However, Deputy Attorney-General Dr. Justice Srem-Sai, representing the respondents, opposed the application, arguing that complaints about how individual judges conduct cases should not necessarily invalidate the Chief Justice’s administrative authority to issue vacation warrants.
Thursday’s proceedings had already produced another setback for Oppong Nkrumah after the Supreme Court dismissed his lawyers’ objection to the Deputy Attorney-General representing the Chief Justice in the matter.
Friday’s ruling, however, does not end Oppong Nkrumah’s main constitutional challenge. The Supreme Court has only rejected his attempt to temporarily suspend the vacation trials while the larger case remains pending.
The ruling now clears the path for criminal cases covered by the Chief Justice’s warrants to proceed, while attention turns to the eventual determination of the substantive constitutional suit.
