Private legal practitioner Godwin Edudzi Tameklo has accused suspended Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo of distorting historical facts about the 1982 murder of three high court judges and a retired army officer.

He claimed that her assertions regarding the role of Adu Lodge in planning the murders are false and politically motivated.

Speaking on JoyNews’s Newsfile on June 28, 2025, Edudzi Tameklo responded to comments the Chief Justice made during her address on June 25, 2025.

In her statement, Chief Justice Torkornoo raised concerns about being tried at Adu Lodge, a facility she claimed was linked to the planning of the infamous murders. She also questioned why the location was selected and whether it was intended to make her feel unsafe during the proceedings to remove her from office.

“I need to make the disclosure at this point that the Adu Lodge facility that I am being tried in featured very prominently in the planning of the murder of judges on June 30, 1981. Was Adu Lodge chosen for this inquiry to make me feel insecure? I think so,” she stated.

The Chief Justice also revealed a personal connection to the tragedy. She said one of the murdered victims, Major Sam Acquah, was her uncle and legal guardian, and that she was living with him at the time of his abduction and murder.

“I was also living with him at the time he was abducted and murdered,” she revealed.

Justice Torkornoo’s comments suggested that the choice of venue and the conduct of the proceedings were deliberate attempts to intimidate her and keep the process hidden from the public.

“The choice of venue, against the background of the secrecy of proceedings, was intended to intimidate me and to prevent any citizen of Ghana from knowing how the proceedings are being conducted,” she alleged.

The murders of Justices Kwadwo Agyei Agyepong, Fred Poku Sarkodee, Cecilia Koranteng-Addow, and Major Sam Acquah (retired) remain one of the darkest chapters in Ghana’s judicial history and are commemorated annually on June 30 as Martyrs Day.

However, Edudzi Tamekloe argued that linking Adu Lodge to the planning of the murders is historically inaccurate.

He challenged the Chief Justice’s narrative and cited official records to support his position.

“What we are not permitted to do is to obviously use history and historical events to more or less mislead the public,” he said.

Tamekloe referred to the Special Investigation Board (SIB) report on the 1982 murders, stating that the report does not support the claim that Adu Lodge was part of the planning.

He cited paragraph 9 of the report’s executive summary.

“Amartey Quaye and Captain Kojo Tsikata [rtd] met at Adu Lodge on 31st October 1982,” he said.

He emphasised that the murders occurred on June 30, four months before the meeting mentioned in the report.

“Guess what, the events happened on about 30th June. By 31st October, the murders had already occurred,” he explained.

According to Tameklo, the report merely noted a meeting outside Adu Lodge and did not associate the location with the planning or execution of the murders.

“Captain Kojo Tsikata and Amartey Quaye met in front of Adu Lodge, nothing more in terms of the planning and execution of the murders,” he said.

He described the Chief Justice’s claims as misleading and suggested that the timing of her remarks was politically calculated.

“So, to suggest even remotely that the Adu Lodge featured prominently in the planning is misleading, and the only reason for that is politics,” he stated.

Tameklo also accused the suspended Chief Justice of attempting to stir public sympathy and divert attention from her ongoing removal process, describing her approach as an emotional strategy.

“To play on the emotional keyboard, obviously, we are getting close to Martyrs Day, June 30, Monday, so this was well orchestrated to basically politicize this removal process,” he asserted.

He concluded that her comments were unnecessary and irrelevant to the current situation.

“That bit of it was completely untenable, unnecessary. Why would her ladyship, the Chief Justice, now suspended, want to bring that historical matter into this? An event that happened 43 years ago, what has that got to do with today?” he questioned.