Chief Justice nominee Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie has revealed that he resigned from the Ghana Prison Service in 1990 so his wife, Patience Baffoe-Bonnie could continue her career after officials told him he could not marry a junior officer.
The 68-year-old judge shared this during his vetting before the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Monday, November 11, 2025.
Justice Baffoe-Bonnie explained that he joined the Prison Service in 1988, after spending five years in private legal practice.
He underwent six months of training and was later posted to Sekondi, where he met his future wife.
“At the time I met my wife, she was a buck private with no rank, actually a sixth former who was just starting her career in the Prisons Service,”
he told the committee.
According to him, after two years in the service, by which time he had risen to the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Prisons, he was informed that he could not marry a junior officer, as both would not be permitted to attend the officers’ mess together.
“So I opted out of the Prisons Service so that she could stay,”
Justice Baffoe-Bonnie explained.
Following his resignation, he joined the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in 1990 as a legal officer responsible for the Eastern and Volta regions, a role he held for two years before being appointed to the bench in December 1992.
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