The late human rights lawyer Akoto Ampaw was expected to have spoken on the challenges that Ghana is going through at the moment under the Akufo-Addo administration but he did not do so before his demise, a founding member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Dr Nyaho-Nyaho Tamakloe, has said.
Dr Nhaho-Tamakloe however described him as a true human rights lawyer.
He said he had known Akoto Ampaw for over forty years and engaged in several political activities together.
Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe and Akoto Amapw were part of the organizers of the ‘Kume Preko’ demonstration organized in 1995 against the introduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT) policy by the then Rawlings administration.
Speaking on the demise of Mr Akoto Amapw on the mid-Day news on TV3 Friday, October 20, Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe said “[his death] came to me as a shock. Honestly, I have not heard that Akoto had not been well or anything.
“I have known him for close to forty years, and we have been in a lot of political activities and events together, he was a great activist and a true human rights lawyer but quite recently when a young man who organized some of his protests was being harassed he came out boldly.
“What really amazes me about Akoto Ampaw in his later years is why he stood so quietly and did not complain or talk about what this country is going through at the moment. I expected Akoto Ampaw to talk strongly against it but he didn’t, even though we were all colleagues, himself, Kwasi Pratt and Akufo-Addo himself, the Akoto Ampaw as I knew him should have come out boldly to condemn some of the atrocities and challenges that this country is facing at the moment but for reason best known to him he was quiet and I was really surprised.”
Mr Akoto Ampaw died on Friday, October 20 after a short illness.
Famous lawyer Akoto Ampaw is dead
He was a veteran Ghanaian lawyer and human rights activist.
Lawyer Anthony Akoto Ampaw is married with children.
Popularly known as ‘Sheeyshey’ right from his student days at the University of Ghana, Ampaw was part of the New Patriotic Party’s legal team in the Electoral Petition of 2013.
He was the head of the legal team that defended President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s win in the 2020 Presidential elections at the Supreme Court.