By William
Yaw Owusu
Thursday
October 11, 2018
Former President Jerry John Rawlings has apparently
become incensed by the ongoing documentary by Multimedia News Channel, Joy News, on the killing of the three
High Court judges and a retired army officer in the heat of the revolution in
1982.
Last week, he promised to drop a ‘bombshell’ about
the killings in the coming days, but it seems he cannot wait any longer.
He posted on social media platform Twitter, on Tuesday
that there is an attempt to ‘rehash’ and‘re-cook’ history and described it as “vicious
and callous political opportunism.”
“We have rehashed and re-cooked history to make
innocent people look murderous. And in the next breath using the same name to
endorse yourselves, because Rawlings has said he is cultured (compared to his
predecessors). This is vicious and callous political opportunism.”
He said “a whole documentary on the killing of the
Major and the judges. An unfortunate tragedy that saw hard, swift justice done
to the perpetrators; unlike the organised assault and killings of the Yaa Naa
and his 39 elders, for which these perpetrators are yet to see justice. That is
the fundamental difference – one group of four saw justice, the other group of
close to 40 did not and has not!”
The former president, who is the founder of the
opposition NDC, said further that “we cannot reduce the harm and pain caused
families and the whole country by turning this matter into a political-media
circus.”
“In the meantime, our party has lost a few too many
thinkers and strategists to see things clearly. We fall for traps set easily.
Rather than a focused fight to ward off this attempt to twist and manipulate the
truth (which thankfully some started well) we are instead back to hang Rawlings
because of the DG publication.”
Last Friday, the former president said at the Accra
Digital Centre where he attended a United Nations Youth Summit that he would
attend another public lecture at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and
Technology (NKUST) in Kumasi in the coming days and take the opportunity to put
issues emanating from the documentary into perspective.
He appeared to be at a loss as to the motive of
those who put together the documentary on the incident, which occurred several
years ago.
“I’ll release a bombshell at UST during a public
lecture,” he added.
In recent times, Joy
News and The Multimedia Group have been broadcasting a
comprehensive documentary on the killing of the three judges and a retired army
officer in 1982 when the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) military
junta, led by then young Flt. Lt. Rawlings, seized power from the
democratically elected government of Dr. Hilla Limann.
The documentary is pushing that the prime suspect,
Joachim Amartey Kwei, could not have committed the crime without the backing of
the authorities in the PNDC.
According to the documentary, the dreaded Captain
Kojo Tsikata agreed that Amartey Kwei ought to have obtained the pass from a
higher authority before having unrestricted movement on that fateful night when
there was curfew.
The documentary revealed that Amartey Kwei mentioned
the names of the authorities with whom he had planned and killed the judges to
the extent that he was on hunger strike before Dr Koranteng of Police Hospital
pacified him.
The dastardly act remains a dark spot in the
nation’s political history after the three High Court Judges namely, Justice
Fred Poku Sarkodie, Mrs. Justice Cecilia Koranteng-Addow and Justice Kwadwo
Agyei Agyapong, as well as a retired army officer, Major Sam Acquah, were callously
murdered under strange circumstances at the Bundase Military Range in the Accra
Plains.
Their bodies were found on 3rd July, 1982.
According to the records, all the three judges had
adjudicated on cases in which they ordered the release of persons who had been
sentenced to long terms of imprisonment during the tenure of the Armed Forces
Revolutionary Council (AFRC) in 1979.
Investigations were conducted into the matter, after
which some active and retired army officers were prosecuted, but there is still
the belief that the real people who gave the order for these judges to be
killed have been left off the hook.
Special Investigative Board (SIB), chaired by Samuel
Azu Crabbe, recommended the prosecution of 10 persons.
Two of them, Joachim Amartey Kwei and Alolga
Akata-Pore, were members of the PNDC.
Names like Captain Kojo Tsikata(rtd), Sergeant
Alolga Akata-Pore, J. Amartey Kwei and Lance Corporal S.K. Amedeka, Michael
Senyah, Gordon Nsurowuo, Gowu, Ransford Jonny Dzandu, Gomeleshio and Evans
Tekpor, alias Tonny, have always come up for scrutiny as far as the case is
concerned.
Even though Amartey Kwei, Tekpor, Senya and Dzandu
were executed, Amedeka escaped from jail.
No comments:
Post a Comment