13 Facts About Cecilia Koranteng-Addow

Cecilia Koranteng-Addow was a High Court judge in Ghana from 1975 until her abduction and murder on 30 June 1982, during the second military rule of Jerry Rawlings.

Cecilia Koranteng-Addow belonged to the Royal Asenie family of Adansi Medoma.

Cecilia Koranteng-Addow attended primary school at the Roman Catholic School at Assin Anyinabrim, and at the Assin Edubiase Methodist School, near Assin Nsuta.

Cecilia Koranteng-Addow then went to secondary school in nearby Cape Coast, first attending middle school at Our Lady of Apostles College of Education and then completing her secondary education at Holy Child High School.

In 1959, Cecilia Koranteng-Addow moved to the United Kingdom where she studied law at the University of Hull.

Cecilia Koranteng-Addow was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in London in 1963.

Cecilia Koranteng-Addow was eventually recruited as a magistrate by the Ghanaian Judicial Service.

In 1980, Cecilia Koranteng-Addow ruled in favour of a businessman named Mr Shackleford, who had been detained during the 1979 revolution led by Jerry Rawlings.

Cecilia Koranteng-Addow held that there was no justification for the detention and directed his release.

Cecilia Koranteng-Addow was the first judge to have questioned the transitional provisions of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council inserted in the 1979 constitution and she set free an AFRC convict.

Cecilia Koranteng-Addow decided a case involving the rioting workers of Ghana Industrial Holding Corporation who attacked parliament in Ghana's Third Republic.

In 1969, they divorced, and in 1974, Cecilia married Gustav Koranteng-Addow, a judge who served as Attorney General of Ghana from 1975 to 1979.

Cecilia Koranteng-Addow was abducted and murdered in secret on 30 June 1982, along with two other High Court justices, Frederick Poku Sarkodee and Kwadwo Agyei Agyepong, and a retired army officer, Sam Acquah, during the second military rule of Rawlings.