••
The Attorney-General’s Department has formally confirmed that the legal framework establishing the name "Kotoka International Airport" remains in force and has not been altered. In a court filing addressing a legal challenge against the government's proposal to rename the facility, the state clarified that the 1969 decree remains the governing law for the airport's nomenclature. This development follows recent government announcements indicating a policy shift to rename the national landmark to "Accra International Airport."
In an affidavit submitted by Assistant State Attorney Mamavi Owusu-Aboagye, the Attorney-General's office stated that the original decree from 1969, which named the airport after Lieutenant General Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka, has not been amended or repealed. The filing explains that while the government has expressed an intention to revert to the facility's original name, no formal legislative or executive instruments have yet been enacted to effect this change. The statement was part of a response to litigation seeking to prevent the rebranding of the airport.
The legal status of the airport's name has become a subject of public debate following the government's proposal. Lieutenant General Kotoka was a key figure in the 1966 coup that overthrew Ghana’s first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, and the naming of the airport in his honor in 1969 has long been a point of historical and political contention. By confirming that the 1969 decree remains legally intact, the Attorney-General has signaled that any official name change would require a rigorous legal process rather than a mere administrative declaration.
This confirmation places the burden on the administration to pursue formal legal amendments if it intends to move forward with the renaming process. Until such legislative action is taken and the decree is modified, the facility continues to hold the name Kotoka International Airport under Ghanaian law. The court's handling of the ongoing legal challenge will likely depend on these admissions from the Attorney-General, which underscore that the announced name change has not yet transitioned from a policy goal to a legal reality.