Former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo has resigned from Ghana’s Council of State, according to sources familiar with the matter, ending her tenure on the presidential advisory body.
Akuffo, who served as Chief Justice from 2017 to 2020, is understood to have tendered her resignation last year and has not attended any meetings of the Council of State since then.
Neither Akuffo nor the presidency immediately commented on the resignation, and the circumstances surrounding her decision were not publicly disclosed.
The Council of State is a constitutional advisory body mandated to counsel the president on matters of governance and national importance. Its members include both elected and appointed representatives drawn from across the country.
Akuffo, one of Ghana’s most distinguished jurists, served on the Supreme Court for more than two decades before becoming the country’s 13th Chief Justice.
She was the second woman to occupy the position after Georgina Theodora Wood.
Prior to her appointment as Chief Justice, she served as a judge of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and held several positions within Ghana’s judiciary.
Her tenure on the Council of State attracted public attention in 2023 when she joined pensioner groups protesting aspects of the government’s domestic debt exchange programme, arguing that retirees should not bear an unfair burden in economic recovery measures.
No official announcement has been made regarding a replacement.
