Trending_News_Ghana3d
In Ghana’s history, very few men have hit the chords of greatness in and outside the boundaries of our nation. They have their names written in the sands of time with golden pens, never to be forgotten.
They may not have been popular during their days nor have wealth as the men of great wealth and power, but their integrity, honesty, dedication to the service of humanity and regard for truth go a long way to be the mainstay of good against the onslaught of evil.
These were the shining stars that shone brightest during the darkest days of Ghana’s early political history.
In the life of post colonial Ghana era, the legal field was the most respected as the country produced barristers and lawyers on a mass scale. The country thus had in her quiver some of the best lawyers known in Africa.
One of the few legal luminaries who stood for justice during the times of Ghana’s chaotic political past was Fred Kwasi Apaloo, a former Chief Justice both of Ghana and later Kenya. He is the one of the few Ghanaians to hold such a position for two different countries.
Another is Justice Mabel Agyemang who was appointed as Chief Justice of Gambia and later the Turks and Caicos Islands , a group of Islands in the Caribbean, Atlantic Ocean which form part of the British Overseas Territory southeast of the Bahamas.
Justice Mabel Agyemang (inset)
Fred Kwasi Apaloo was born in Woe, a small town near Keta in the Volta region of Ghana. It is said that he lost his father at the tender age of seven years and had to live with his uncle in Kadjebi for financial support through school.
He went to the Accra Academy, completed in 1942 and subsequently read law at the University College, Hull in the UK. Having a bright legal mind and excelling in his stripes, Justice Apaloo was called to the English Bar in 1950 by the Middle Temple.
He then returned to Ghana to practise law and famously defended the culprits in the Anloga riots that were protests against the imposition of taxes by the British colonial government.
He became a High Court Judge after Ghana attained independence from Britain in 1960. He was married to Georgina Kumasenu with whom he had five children.
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah (inset)
His excellence saw him preside over high profile government cases, famous among them being the treason trials of five persons including three close associates of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah; Ebenezer Ako-Adjei, Tawia Adamafio and Hugh H. Cofie Crabbe.
They were being accused of having a party in the assasination attempt on the sitting president at Kulungugu, famously known as the Kulungugu bombings. The verdict by the presiding judge who later became ceremonial president, Edward Akufo-Addo displeased Dr. Nkrumah so much that he was dismissed as Chief Justice.
He was later appointed to the Court of Appeal in 1966 and then to the Supreme Court on 1971.
For his trail blazing excellence, he was appointed Chief Justice in 1977 during the military rule of the Supreme Military Council under Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong.
Gen. I.K Acheampong (inset)
After the return to democratic rule during the government of Dr. Hilla Limann in 1979, the ruling party sought to replace him by challenging the constitutionality of his appointment under by being appointed by a military government.
A civilian, Amoako Tuffour countered the stance of the government and sent the matter for interpretation by the Apex court. The presiding judge, Justice E.N. P Sowah ruled that Justice Apaloo occupied his office right after the reinstatement of the third republic and thus legal under 1979 constitution.
He served through until his retirement in 1986, after failed attempts to remove him by the PNDC government of Jerry John Rawlings. Interesting right?
In the same year of his retirement, Kenya announced a vacancy for Chief Justice, having come short of capable candidates and Justice Apaloo was subsequently appointed to fill the position in March 1993.
Whiles there he was involved in several legal tussles, one being that he vehemently opposed the imposition of the death penalty and another being the case of the G.M.B Kariuki Versus Hon. Fred Kwasi Apaloo Civil Appeal No. 122 of 1994. (Kenya Law website) .
He held this position until his replacement in 1995 by Abdul Majid Cockar.
Having served his country ‘judiciously’, he was awarded with the highest honor of the land, Companion of the Order of the Volta in 1979 and Elder of the Golden Heart in 1993 by the Kenyan Government.
After serving his country and setting a trailblazer’s pace, he died in the year 2000.
Fred Kwasi Apaloo is the first Ghanaian to serve as Chief Justice of two different countries and we owe him much.
It is no surprise he was from the region of the finest minds; the Volta region.
(Part Of the information was sourced from Wikipedia)
0 Comments