Story Highlights
- Parliament confirmed Anthony Forson Jnr and two Court of Appeal judges to the Supreme Court on August 27, 2026, after a Minority walkout.
- Gender advisor Akosua Manu says the vetting should have addressed a 2019 rape allegation against Forson by Canada-based lawyer Kuukuwa Andam.
- Andam alleged Forson raped her at a Washington D.C. hotel in 2012 and filed a criminal complaint with D.C. police; Forson has consistently and emphatically denied the claim.
- No public record shows the complaint resulted in charges, and the case appears to have gone cold since 2019.
- Manu argues Andam should have been invited into the process so Forson could respond on the record, given the seniority of the office at stake.
Advisor on Gender and Social Protection to former Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Akosua Manu, has raised concerns about the nomination and parliamentary vetting of Supreme Court nominee, Anthony Forson Jnr.
Ms Manu argued that the process should have provided him with an opportunity to directly address and clarify a rape allegation reportedly made against him by lawyer Kukua Andam.
Speaking on The Big Issue on Channel One TV on Saturday, August 29, Manu argued that the allegation was significant enough to warrant discussion during the vetting, particularly given the senior judicial position Forson was being considered for.
She said the accuser, Kukua Andam, should have been invited to participate so the matter could be properly examined and Forson given the chance to respond.
“Justice Forson has an allegation of rape against him by one Kukua Andam. She is a lawyer who questioned his integrity. Kukua Andam should have been brought into the vetting,” Ms. Manu said.
“He is going for a vetting and one of the allegations against him is rape and it was important for him to clear the air on that issue especially because of the position he is going to occupy. Otherwise, we downplay issues affecting women. It even signals negatively to victims of sexual misconduct.”
Ms. Manu maintained that allegations of sexual misconduct, regardless of the person involved, should be treated with seriousness when the individual is being considered for a position requiring a high degree of public confidence and integrity.
The Backstory: A 2019 Allegation That Never Reached Trial
The claim Manu wants examined dates back seven years. In January 2019, Kuukuwa Andam, a Canada-based Ghanaian lawyer, publicly accused Forson — then newly elected president of the Ghana Bar Association — of sexually assaulting her at a hotel in Washington D.C. in December 2012.
In a detailed Facebook post, Andam said she and Forson had been in a relationship while she pursued her master’s degree in the United States, and that she had contacted him for financial help to stay in school.
She said he arranged to meet her at a hotel, and that she had intended to have sex with him using a condom, but when he did not have one, she asked to leave and get one.
She alleged he refused to let her leave and sexually assaulted her. Andam said the trauma led to hospitalization for psychiatric care and a later suicide attempt. She said she filed a criminal complaint with the Washington D.C. Police Department.
Forson, through his lawyers, Beyuo & Co., issued a categorical denial. “Mr Forson sincerely and emphatically denies that he has committed any such offence against Kuukuwa Andam,” the statement read.
“He maintains that the allegations are palpably false and in due course he will be vindicated.”
The allegation prompted public reaction at the time. Human rights lawyer Francis-Xavier Sosu called on Forson to step aside from the GBA presidency pending investigation.
The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA-Ghana) called on the GBA and the General Legal Council to set up a committee to investigate, noting Andam had also separately alleged an earlier assault by another lawyer, Selasi Kofi Fumey, during her national service.
Andam said publicly that her goal was not money but accountability, and that she wanted to prevent other women lawyers from experiencing what she went through.
No public record indicates the Washington D.C. complaint resulted in charges being filed, a formal GBA inquiry being concluded, or any other resolution.
The matter appears to have receded from public attention after 2019, resurfacing only now, as Forson ascends to the country’s highest court.
Why the Gap Matters
Mr. Forson, a former GBA president and private legal practitioner, was one of three nominees — alongside Justice Sophia Bernasko-Essah and Justice Edward Amoako Asante — who appeared before Parliament’s Appointments Committee on Thursday, August 27.
Coverage of his session, including from the committee’s own record, shows the questioning covered his professional record and legal views. There is no indication the rape allegation was raised by any MP present, or that Forson was asked to respond to it on the record.
That silence sits inside a wider pattern this cycle. The vetting was already contested on procedural grounds: the Minority Caucus walked out over what it called a rushed timetable and insufficient public notice for citizens to submit memoranda ahead of the hearings.
Manu’s intervention adds a substantive dimension to that procedural critique — the question isn’t only whether the public had enough time to raise concerns, but whether a concern already on the public record for seven years was ever put to the nominee at all.
Ghana’s vetting framework exists partly to let the public interrogate a nominee’s fitness for office beyond technical competence, including matters of integrity and conduct.
A sexual assault allegation, even one that produced no charges, sits squarely in that territory when the accused is entering the country’s most senior judicial role — one built on public trust in fairness, including toward women and survivors of sexual violence.
What Remains Unanswered
It’s not established whether the Appointments Committee received any petition or memorandum referencing Andam’s allegation before the compressed public-input window closed.
Andam’s current position on the case — or whether she made any attempt to reach the committee — is not part of the public record reviewed for this report.
Forson has not, as of publication, issued a fresh statement responding to Ms. Manu’s remarks or reaffirming his 2019 denial.
