News Desk Report
President Akufo-Addo is set to name Supreme Court Judge, Justice Emmanuel Y. Kulendi as the next Chief Justice of the Republic of Ghana, the New Crusading GUIDE is reliably informed.
The President is said to have been considering two names – Gertrude Torkornoo and Emmanuel Yoni Kulendi – as replacement for the retiring Chief Justice, Kwasi Anin Yeboah, but top on of the President’s list and preference is Justice Emmanuel Yoni Kulendi.
Reports suggest President Akufo-Addo is very unhappy about attempts by some persons to peddling influence by orchestrating media publications that suggest a particular candidate who was also under consideration had been chosen when that was not the case.
Discussions deep inside the corridors of decision-making indicate key political figures within the party and government support and respect President Akufo-Addo’s choice of Justice Kulendi, who was appointed to the apex court by Akufo-Addo only a year after Justice Torkornoo.
The two are said to be eminently qualified for the job but Justice Emmanuel Yoni Kulendi holds an advantage over her due to the level of support he has from Ghanaians, on the bench and in the entire judicial service due to his years of active legal work spanning almost three decades.
While widely acknowledged for his principled private practice and delivering his mandate on the Supreme Court without partiality since ascending the highest bench, some persons in the NPP backing President Akufo-Addo’s choice of Kulendi highlight his judgment in the Justice Abdulai Case and the Assin North MP’s injunction case which were critical to the passage of E-levy and other key Akufo-Addo agenda in parliament.
Born to a Pito brewer and a World War 2 veteran, Kulendi, 59, He hails from Issa, a village in the Upper West Region of Ghana and is the fourth of seven children of his mother.
He had his early education at Ndama Primary School before proceeding to Wa Secondary School (now Wa Senior High Technical School). During his fifth year in secondary school, he spent almost two years in the Wa prisons on remand, and this incident made him resolve all the more to be a lawyer. Following the incident, Kulendi joined Navrongo Senior High School where he registered as a private student for his O-Level examination. He later proceeded to New Juaben Senior High School from 1985 to 1987, where he had his sixth form. From 1988 to 1989, he was at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
Emmanuel Yonny Kulendi was Managing Partner of top Accra law firm, Kulendi@Law and was an associate barrister and solicitor at Akufo-Addo, Prempeh & Co where he did pupillage. He was assigned to the Legal Aid Board of Accra for his national service after he graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Ghana, Legon, with an LLB Honours. He completed his law degree at the Ghana School of Law, where he obtained a barrister of law degree and a solicitor’s certificate.
He holds an MA in international security and civil-military relations from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, USA. He is a Fellow of the inaugural class of the Africa Leadership Initiative-West Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
