Yaw Appau

Yaw Appau is a retired Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana, where he sat from 2015 to 2021. He was born on 2 August 1951 at Badu in the Tain District of the Bono Region.

From classroom to courtroom

His path to the bench was a long one. Money troubles forced him out of Prempeh College in 1967, so he trained as a teacher at Ajumako and taught in middle schools for six years while taking his O and A levels privately. He entered the University of Ghana in 1977 to read law and political science and was called to the bar in December 1982. He worked briefly for the PNDC government, including on the National Investigations Committee, and then practised at Barimah Chambers in Sunyani.

On the bench

He became a district magistrate in 1991, a circuit judge in 1996, a High Court judge four years later and an Appeal Court judge in 2006. In October 2012 he was appointed sole commissioner of the inquiry into judgment debts, which examined payments such as those to Alfred Woyome. President Mahama nominated him to the Supreme Court and he was sworn in with Gabriel Pwamang on 29 June 2015. He sat on the panel that heard the 2020 election petition and retired in August 2021.