26 years after the murder of the Judges; Any lessons learnt? Peter Atiemo reminisces

Today marks the 26th anniversary of the gruesome murder of three High Court Judges and a retired Army Officer. They were murdered by operatives of Flt Lt. Jerry John Rawlings' Provisional National Defence Council, on 30 June, 1982 at the Bundase Military Range - 30 kilometers east of Accra - and their bodies set on fire. A rainstorm that night prevented the bodies from being burnt beyond recognition.

The victims were Justices (Mrs) Cecilia Koranteng-Addow, Fred Poku Sarkodie, Kwadwo Agyei Agyepong and Major Sam Acquah, the Group Personnel Manager of the Ghana Industrial Holding Corporation.

Those who undertook the abduction and murder were later identified as L/Cpl Amedeka, L/Cpl Michael Senyah, Tony Tekpor and Johnny Dzandu, according to the National Reconciliation Commission Report (October 2004).

At his trial Amartey Kwei, one of the accomplices and member of the governing body of the Council, mentioned Kojo Tsikata, an old pal of Jerry Rawlings and the then National Security Coordinator, as the brain behind the operation.

However, 'Kojo T" as he was called - could not be tried by the Attorney-General of the time, George Aikins. According to the A-G, the evidence against 'Kojo T' was not strong enough to warrant his prosecution.

It was alleged that the keys to the Fiat Campangola vehicle used in abducting and transporting the victims to the murder site were picked from the residence of the wife of Rawlings - Nana Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings.

Two days after the heinous crime, the leader of the "revolution", Rawlings, said publicly that his government would find the "enemies of the revolution" who had perpetrated that dastardly act.

Right-thinking Ghanaians thought Jerry and his surrogates knew something about the murders because the security at that time meant that only government operatives could have taken the abducted judges and the Army officer from Accra to Bundase through the many military checkpoints without being checked.

The Report of the National Reconciliation Commission - set up by J A Kufuor's NPP Government a year into office and 20 years after the chilling events - to investigate human rights violations - stated, "What the judges had in common was that they had adjudicated on some of the cases in which, during the AFRC rule, certain persons had been sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, and ordered their release.

"Mrs. Justice Koranteng-Addow and Maj Acquah also had this in common: workers of GIHOC, where Amartey Kwei worked and where Major Acquah was Director of Personnel, had brought an action which was dismissed by Mrs. Justice Koranteng-Addow"

On 15 July, 1982 the PNDC set up a Special Investigation Board to investigate the abduction and killing. The Board was under the Chairmanship of Justice Samuel Azu Crabbe, a retired Chief Justice. The Board was assisted by a police Investigation Team.

According to the NRC Report, "No sooner had the members of the Board commenced work than it became apparent that the authorities were determined to frustrate them in their efforts to unearth the truth behind the killings and bring the culprits to justice. The setting up of the Board was mere window dressing designed to deflect public criticism and suspicions of officials in high positions for supposed complicity in the murders".

Upon investigations, the SIB, the NRC Report underscored, "found Capt Tsikata to be a co-conspirator in the abduction and cold-blooded murder of the Judges and the retired Army Officer. But, like Amartey Kwei, Capt Tsikata could not by himself have carried out the deed because he was not even a member of the PNDC.

"It needed the authority of some higher up, and that person was Flt Lt Rawlings, who according to evidence before the Commission, had, months before he succeeded in overthrowing the Limann Administration, threatened to punish the Judges who had freed so-called AFRC convicts. Without his express orders, or tacit approval, the operational pass would not have been issued to Amedeka and his gang".

Today, Mr Rawlings is the founder of the National Democratic Congress, which was hurriedly formed when he ostensibly removed his military garb and donned civilian apparel, after he bowed to local and international pressures to return Ghana, the first country south of the Sahara to gain independence, to constitutional rule.

Leading lights in the fight for democracy included Kweku Baako Junior, Editor in-Chief of The Crusading Guide , and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party. Records on where John Evans Atta Mills, flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress, was are sketchy, though reports received so far by this paper indicate he was nowhere near the marches for freedom.

A top industrialist who did not want his name mentioned, condemned outright the human rights abuses that characterised the regimes of Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings. "These killings, abductions, tortures and other things, were senseless acts that could only be carried out by callous people", he underscored and posited, "I hope we as a nation can draw a lot of lessons from these and refuse to let miscreants come to occupy the seat of government".