Prominent Ghanaian lawyer, Anthony Akoto Ampaw, is said to have passed away today at the University of Ghana Medical Center (UGMC).
According to reports, family sources have indicated that the distinguished lawyer and human rights activist had been in poor health since the start of the year.
The late Ampaw was part of the New Patriotic Party’s legal team in the 2013 electoral petition filed by his client Nana Akufo-Addo. He lost the case.
But in his next election petition case, he was successful. Akoto Ampaw was the head of the legal team defending President Akufo-Addo’s win in the 2020 presidential elections at the Supreme Court in the petition case filed by former President John Dramani Mahama.
In February 2022, lawyer Ampaw represented one of government’s key critics, convener of #FixTheCountry, Oliver Mawuse Barker Vormawor, who has been charged with felony treason for threatening to stage an e-coup over the controversial Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy).
The late Ampaw was a graduate of the University of Ghana, LL.B., 1973 and the Ghana School of Law, B.L., 1993.
Lawyer Akoto was a partner of Akufo-Addo’s law firm, Akufo-Addo, Prempeh & Co. He had an impeccable legacy in the legal fraternity especially championing human rights campaigns and fair justice.
He was one of the people who criticised the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill also known as the anti-LGBTQ Bill.
At the time, he firmly argued that the bill’s objective was to unjustly criminalize expressions of sympathy and support for the LGBTQ+ community in Ghana.
Mr. Akoto Ampaw also pointed out that the bill imposed unwarranted restrictions on individuals wishing to participate in discussions about LGBTQ issues, a situation he believed contradicted the principles of the 1992 Constitution.
The veteran lawyer led the Human Rights Coalition.