Alfred Augustus Akainyah was a Ghanaian lawyer, jurist, barrister-at-law, and a Supreme Court Judge during the first republic.

He was born on 2 February 1907 and a Nzema. He was born to John Akainyah, a farmer and Tufuhene of Tikoboh No 2 in the Western Region.

He attended the Gold Coast Police Training College and became a policeman in 1928.

He served as a police officer from 1928 to 1946 and resigned to pursue Law in the United Kingdom. He was also the lead detective investigating the Kibi ritual murder of Akyea Mensah a sub-chief.

On January 26 1949, he was called to the bar by the the Middle Temple and started working the chambers of Lawyer Koi Larbi that same year as a private legal practitioner for two years.

Alfred Augustus Akainyah was appointed District Magistratewhile serving as the treasurer of the Western Nzema State. He later went back into private practice until 1 September 1962 when he was appointed High Court Judge.

Whilst a high court judge he was appointed in 1963 to head a Commission to investigate irregularities in the allocation of import licences. He, Fred Apaloo and Charles Sterling Acolatse were appointed Supreme Court Judges two years later to replace judges who had been dismissed following acquittals in a treason trial.

In the subsequent retrial of the accused they were convicted. Alfred Akainyah together with Kwesi Armah, a leading member of the CPP and a trusted confidant of Nkrumah, and the Attorney General Kwaw Swanzy, all of them Nzemas, met with President Nkrumah to plead for leniency for the convicts.

As a Justice of the Supreme Court he presided over the trial of Henry Djaba, FY Asare who was a minister in the Nkrumah government and James Quartey in the famous GAMCO agricultural fraud. They were convicted and received extensive prison terms.

Undoubtedly, during his judicial career he earned many enemies particularly since he was an Nzema like President Kwame Nkrumah with whom he had a long-standing and close relationship. He was dismissed on 7 June 1966 after the overthrow of Nkrumah even though he had previously tendered his resignation NLC regime as a result of adverse charges of corruption levelled against his wife Victoria Adobea Akainyah, by the Ollenu Commission of Inquiry.

His wife was prosecuted and sentenced to prison. He stoutly defended his wife on the basis that he was the real target of persecution. Initially his wife was represented pro bono by the famed radical British lawyer Sir Dingle Foot because other local lawyers would not represent her.

National Liberation Council on 7 June 1966. He resumed private practice as a barrister at law after serving on the bench.

He was married to Victoria Adobea Akainyah.

He is the father of Ghanaian artist Samuel Akainyah of Akainyah Gallery. Three of his children also trained as lawyers namely Lawrence Bonzo Akainyah, Emma Amakye and Azanne Kofi Akainyah.

He died in 1988 at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra.

www.ghanaweb.com