PRESIDENT, SPEAKER MOURN WIFE OF MURDERED HIGH COURT JUDGE

President Akufo-Addo today, Thu. Jan. 17, joined hundreds of mourners, well-wishers and sympathizers at the traditional burial rites and Requiem at the Saint Cyprian’s Anglican Cathedral in Kumasi to repose the soul of the late Mrs. Yvonne Opoku Sarkodie.

The late Mrs. Yvonne Opoku Sarkodie is the wife of Justice Frederick Opoku Sarkodie, one of the three High Court Judges who were abducted and murdered in 1982. 

Born Nee Nana Yaa Akyaa Prempeh into the Royal Asafu-Adjei lineage of Kumasi Baman in 1936, the late Mrs. Yvonne Opoku Sarkodie was the wife of Justice Frederick Opoku Sarkodie, one of the three High Court Judges who were abducted and murdered on June 30, 1982 at Bondase in the Greater Accra region. 

She was the first of five children of the first Asante Reverend Minister of the Anglican Church, the Rev. John Prempeh also of the Kumasi Royal Family and Mrs. Mary Afrakomah Prempeh also of the Baman Royal Family in Kumasi. 

Mrs. Yvonne Opoku Sarkodie was a teacher, a profession in which she rose through the ranks to become a Senior Superintendent before her early retirement in 1986. She also worked at the Ghana High Commission in the United Kingdom during which time she met the late Justice Opoku Sarkodie and the two in 1960 tied, the nuptial knot producing five children. It was while the marriage was blossoming that Justice Opoku Sarkodie was brutally murdered on June 30, 1982.

 Until her demise, she was a leader of the Saint Mary’s Guild as well as a chorister of the Anglican Church, precisely the Ridge Church in Accra. 

Mrs. Opoku Sarkodie passed on late last year at the age of 82. At the Requiem at the St. Cyprian’s Anglican Cathedral in Kumasi were hundreds of mourners and sympathizers. Prominent among them were President Akufo-Addo, the Speaker or Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye, some Ministers of State and the MP for Subin, Mr. Eugene Boakye Antwi. 

The Children of the late Mrs. Yvonne Opoku Sarkodie, who recalled the days after the murder of their father. They describe their late mother as a mentor, motivation and a teacher. 

Her biological brother, Nana Adu Gyamfi, who is also the Adontenhene of the Kumasi Traditional Council, on behalf of the Asafu-Adjei Fmily, described the late Mrs. Opoku Sarkodie as a 'simple, hardworking and God-fearing one whose good character traits and virtues were pre-ordained from her birth. 

The Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye, who has been a long standing family friend of the Sarkodies, had his tribute read for him. He noted that the late Mrs. Opoku Sarkodie was 'traumatized and could not easily forget the helpless husband who was captured by murderous soldiers in fugu and killed.'

In a Homily, a Minister of the Accra Ridge Church, the Reverend Canon Samuel Lamptey described death as a gain for all believers particularly those who diligently serve God. He extolled the virtues of the late Mrs. Opoku Sarkodie especially her fortitude after her husband’s assassination as well as her generosity to the church and humanity.