A man who spent more than two decades behind bars without legal representation is calling for an urgent overhaul of Ghana’s legal aid system, warning that thousands of poor citizens remain vulnerable to wrongful convictions simply because they cannot afford a lawyer.
Evangelist Richard Nyarko, who was sentenced to 35 years for conspiracy to commit robbery despite having no counsel during trial, said his conviction is a glaring example of how poverty continues to determine justice outcomes in the country. Nyarko spent seven years in remand without trial and 25 more in prison, all without a lawyer defending him at any stage.
“The justice system fails the poor from the very beginning,” he said. “I stood before a judge alone. No one explained anything to me. I was sentenced without a voice.”
Nyarko maintains that his arrest stemmed from a misunderstanding involving a police officer who instructed him to change a vehicle’s number plate. When the officer fled after failing to justify the act to a District Chief Executive, Nyarko became the sole suspect and was handed over to police by residents who had earlier attempted to lynch him. Without legal representation, he was unable to challenge the narrative presented against him.
According to him, the absence of a lawyer left him powerless during interrogation, unable to cross-examine witnesses, and unprepared to defend himself in court. He believes that if he had been assigned counsel, the circumstances surrounding the missing police officer and conflicting witness accounts would have been properly examined.
“Legal aid is not a privilege, it is a right,” he stressed, calling for increased funding, more lawyers under the Legal Aid Commission, and stronger mechanisms to ensure every accused person is represented. He warned that the country’s prisons are filled with people whose fate was sealed not by evidence, but by poverty.
Nyarko’s sentence was eventually reduced from 35 to 25 years on appeal, though the appeal itself was delayed because officers struggled to retrieve his records, another failure he attributes to an overburdened justice system.
He now advocates widespread reform, insisting that his case is not an isolated incident. “There are many like me still inside, confused, unrepresented, and forgotten,” he said. “Until legal aid is strengthened, the poor will continue to serve sentences they shouldn’t.”
