Cecilia Koranteng-Addow

Cecilia Koranteng-Addow (née Gaisie, 24 May 1936 – 30 June 1982) 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.

Early life and education

Cecilia Afran Gaisie was born in Assin Nsuta, Gold Coast (now Ghana) in 1936 to Philip Afran Gaisie, a businessman, and Mary Adwoa Kwansaa Boafo, a housewife and one of Cecilia's father's six wives. She belonged to the Royal Asenie family of Adansi Medoma.

Cecilia attended primary school at the Roman Catholic School at Assin Anyinabrim, and at the Assin Edubiase Methodist School, near Assin Nsuta. She then went to secondary school in nearby Cape Coast, first attending middle school at Our Lady of Apostles (OLA) College of Education and then completing her secondary education at Holy Child High School. Cecilia held that there was no justification for the detention and directed his release. Cecilia was the first judge to have questioned the transitional provisions of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) inserted in the 1979 constitution and she set free an AFRC convict. She also decided a case involving the rioting workers of Ghana Industrial Holding Corporation (GIHOC) who attacked parliament in Ghana's Third Republic.

Personal life Cecilia's first husband was Nicholas Liverpool, who went on to serve as the sixth president of Dominica from 2003 to 2012. Cecilia and Nicholas met during their studies at the University of Hull and married in 1963. They had four children together. 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 and Gustav met through work and remained married until Cecilia's death in 1982. They had no children together.

Death and legacy

Cecilia 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. Lance Corporal Amedeka, Michael Senyah, Tekpor Hekli, Johnny Dzandu and Joachim Amartey Quaye were indicted for the murders in 1983. In June 1983, before the trial could be completed, Amedeka escaped from the Nsawam and Ussher Fort prisons where they were being held and left Ghana. Senya, Hekli, Dzandu and Amartey Quaye were found guilty of murder, sentenced to death and executed by firing squad. The Memorial to the Martyrs of the Rule of Law, which includes statues of all three murdered justices, stands in front of the Supreme Court of Ghana buildings today.

The Esi Afran Foundation was founded in Cecilia's memory in 2011, by her childhood friend Josephine van Lare and two of her children, Philip Liverpool and Nana Ama Brantuo (née Liverpool), with the goal of improving the lives of young women through education and training. The foundation currently works to improve the standard of education in Ghana by providing financial support and advice to other organisations that focus on education.