While a student, he was quite active in sports and was the captain of a variety of junior and university football, hockey and cricket teams.

[4] Samuel Azu Crabbe returned to Ghana after his training in the UK, where he practised as a barrister and solicitor from 1950 onwards.

[4] The NRC had been reorganized into the Supreme Military Council (SMC) in 1975 with General Acheampong still as the Head of state of Ghana.

[a] During the era of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) of Jerry Rawlings, three judges and a retired army officer were abducted from their homes on 30 June 1982.

All four had adjudicated on cases in which they had ordered the release of persons who had been sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, during the rule of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) which had also been led by Jerry Rawlings in 1979.

Throughout the investigation, the Ghanaian Times, a state-owned newspaper, ran a persistent campaign to discredit the process as well as the SIB members.

Azu Crabbe and his family were subject to intimidation tactics, including having his electricity being cut off and calls being made to his daughter, who was in London (England) at the time, telling her that her father would soon be dead.