The Chief Justice, Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo, has called for an urgent need to protect the Country’s vegetation cover.
According to her, the trauma of witnessing how the environment has been destroyed required deliberate efforts to restore it.
Justice Gertrude Torkornoo made this while leading judges of the superior courts, directors, and officers of the judicial service to plant trees at the Supreme Court as the Country marks the ‘Green Ghana Day’ on the theme “Growing for a Greener Tomorrow.”
“What is critical for me in this occasion to share, is the fact that our generation has experienced and is experiencing the stress of losing forest cover of losing rivers, of losing the beauty of greenery,” the CJ observed.
This to point, she said, “it is only our generation’s responsibility to bring an end to this phenomenon.”
To buttress her point, Justice Torkornoo said “Last year, we experienced the horror of the flooding of (some) communities in the Volta Region and we experienced the trauma of being told that should the rains go even deeper, we may have the Akosombo Dam itself come down.
“I don’t think any nation ought to hear such news,” Justice Torkornoo added while commending the initiative to plant trees.
She also expressed happiness about the survival of the trees planted previously that are doing well in the triangular gardens of the Supreme Court.
The Deputy Regional Manager of the Forestry Commission, Mr George Agbenu, called for more collaboration as effort is being made to protect the vegetation.
“We want to encourage all stakeholders to also be part of this program.
“The chiefs, the MMDAs, the Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies to be part of this program to support the forestry commission so that we plant trees across the country,” he added.
While expressing gratitude for joining the Chief Justice and her team of judges and staff to plant trees, he said, a total 10 million trees are expected to be planted as part of the Green Ghana Day.
He appealed for harsher punishment for perpetrators who are found culpable of destroying the country’s vegetation through illegal mining activities.
Also taking part in the tree planting exercise includes Justice Mariama Owusu and Justice Barbara Ackah-Yensu, both Supreme Court justices, Justice Cyra Cynthia Pamela Addo Koranteng, the Judicial Secretary and Justice Philip Bright Mensah, both Justices of the Court of Appeal, J R Ampong-Fosu, the Director of Communications, directors and judicial services.
The Mayor of Accra, Madam Elizabeth Sackey later joined the Chief Justice and her team to plant further trees on the Atta Mills High Street.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/Murtala Inusah/Etornam Kumashie
