Isaac Kobina Abban

Isaac Kobina Donkor Abban was Chief Justice of Ghana from 1995 to 2001, and earlier the electoral commissioner who stood up to military rulers over the Union Government referendum. He was born at Agona Nkum in the Central Region on 14 May 1933 and died on 21 April 2001.

He went to Mfantsipim School and read law at the University of Nottingham, being called to the English bar in 1958 and the Ghanaian bar in 1959. He practised privately until he became a High Court judge in 1970.

As electoral commissioner he supervised the "Unigov" referendum of 30 March 1978, the Supreme Military Council's plan for a no-party government. He resisted attempts to rig the count and went into hiding in fear for his life. He later served as Chief Justice of the Seychelles from 1990 to 1993, returned to Ghana's Supreme Court, and was appointed Chief Justice by President Rawlings on 22 February 1995. He was due to retire on health grounds on 1 May 2001 and died in Accra ten days before.