US Embassy mourns Justice Marful-Sau

The United States of America is mourning the death of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Marful-Sau.

The Embassy of the United States of America in Ghana offered its condolences to the Government of Ghana, the Judiciary, and the family of Justice Marful-Sau, in a Facebook post.

The Embassy said it remembers Justice Marful-Sau when he was an Appeals Court Judge and participated in a special International Visitor Leadership Programme organised for a select group from the Ghanaian Judiciary and Bar to learn about the U.S judicial system in 2014.

“He will be fondly remembered for his calm demeanor and sharp intellect. May his soul rest in peace,” the Embassy’s post stated.

Justice Maarful-Sau died on Tuesday afternoon, 10 August 2021 in Accra.

He was 64.

He was part of a seven-member panel that sat on the 2020 election petition by John Mahama against The Electoral Commission of Ghana and President Nana Akufo-Addo.

Justice Marful-Sau was admitted to practice in Ghana as a Barrister-at-Law and Solicitor in 1984. He began his career as a national service personnel working in the capacity of a Legal Assistant at the Castle Information Bureau Office of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) and briefly as a prosecutor in the office of the Special Public Prosecutor from August 1984 to July 1986.

During the period of his national service, he was selected to study a six-month course in Intelligence Studies at the Security and Intelligence Academy in Russia.

In July 1986, he was attached to the office of the PNDC, he remained there until September 1987. A month later, Marful-Sau joined Vidal. L. Buckle and Company as a private legal practitioner.

While in private practice, his areas of expertise included: Nationality, Immigration, Corporate, Commercial and Insurance Law.

He remained in private legal practice until June 2002 when he was called to the bench as a judge of the High Court. While in private legal practice, Marful-Sau was a member of the Law Reform Commission from August 1998 to October 2005 and a member of the Ghana Frequency Regulation Control Board from 1993 to 1998.

He rose through the ranks as a justice of the high court to a justice of the appeal court, serving in that capacity from November 2006 to 2018 when he was appointed justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana.

Marful-Sau was nominated together with three other judges (Justice Agnes Dordzie, Justice Professor Nii Ashie Kotey and Justice Nene Amegatcher) by the president Nana Akufo-Addo in 2018. After the names of the nominated judges were sent to parliament, there were claims that his appointment and the appointment of Justice Agnes Dordzie were rewards and not justified as their promotions occurred after they (Justice Samuel Marful-Sau and Justice Agnes Dordzie) recommended that the Electoral Commission Chair, Mrs. Charlotte Osei be removed from office.

The government, however, dismissed these claims claiming the nominations were in consultation with the Council of State and based on the advice of the Judicial Council.