I’m No Coup Maker - Captain

Captain (rtd) Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey has denied ever planning to stage a coup d'etat in the country, as contained in retired Chief Superintendent Jacob Jebuni Yidana's book, “Who Killed The Judges?”

Captain Effah-Dartey is currently awaiting the outcome of his petition over the decision by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Vetting Committee to drop him from the list of presidential aspirants.

In a written rejoinder which he delivered personally at the offices of DAILY GUIDE yesterday, the Hon Member of Parliament (MP) for Berekum, noted that the story merely parroted half-truths churned out by retired Chief Superintendent Yidana and what he described as strange inventions by an unnamed retired Colonel who was OC at the Ghana Military Academy.

Though aggrieved by the contents of the story, the former Deputy Minister of the Interior said, “DAILY GUIDE, I promise you, God is fighting my battles for me.

I will not sue the paper or Yidana or the faceless lying Colonel. I promise also that by His Grace when ultimately my fortunes change and I become President of Ghana, I will not victimize DAILY GUIDE: Bank on this promise.”

Explaining what he stated as the facts, Effah-Dartey, also a lawyer, said he has never hidden from the public domain the truth that he was arrested by operatives of the Military Intelligence on Thursday 5th February 1981.

“They took me straight to their offices and later sent me to the condemned block of the Medium Security Prison, Nsawam,” he said, adding that he was taken to the Special Branch where Yidana was a member of the panel for interrogations.

He said the government, after studying the report submitted by the panel, set him and the other 47 suspects free on seeing no truth in the allegation.

The decision by government to set them free, he posited, stems from the position of lawyers at the Attorney-General's Department that “the case will not fly in any High Court”.

The military could however convict him, according to the government lawyers.

Effah-Dartey pointed out that the then Chief of Defence Staff, Odartey Barnor set up a General Court Martial with him (Effah-Dartey) as the sole accused person.

“The court held its proceedings in Nsawam Prisons, and it was presided over by Justice N.N. Amerteifio -not any magistrate Amadu as lied by over-enthusiastic Yidana,” he said.

Continuing, Hon Effah-Dartey said he was charged with mutiny which, he added, is the equivalence of treason; “but even the soldiers, led by Group Captain Kotei, saw that there was no merit in the story of the prosecution, so I was acquitted and discharged at the level of submission of no case.

“Now the military court went ahead and convicted me of the lesser offence of misconduct and jailed me for 23 months,” he stated.

He took issues with the court because according to him, it sat in secret at Nsawam Prisons where the press had no access to it, adding that the information about the proceedings came in the form of pieces of rumours.

“Please believe me; how can Yidana say in his book that I planned to kill everybody in Ghana over the age of 40? Was I mad? Was I crazy? Was I insane? How old was my mother, and my father?” he asked.

Giving an insight into what he said happens in security circles, he noted that “when they arrest you, locked behind bars, they will destroy you with millennia of false charges, so as to please their masters.”

The Vetting Committee, he noted, has overreached itself, since according to him, it is not a court of law and its decision does not hold the force of law.

“Besides, they rushed to take a decision. Did they check from Burma Camp records to see the offence for which I was convicted?” he asked.

Continuing with his catalogue of questions, he asked, “How can conviction for a minor offence of misconduct debar me from becoming President of Ghana? How?

“The 1992 Constitution talks about an offence so grave that the punishment is 10 years or more imprisonment…in my case, misconduct, jailed 23 months and you say I am disqualified? Oh, God!” he exclaimed.

Rawlings and his PNDC, he said, declared null and void the trial, conviction and sentence and even pardoned him absolutely, adding, “The Constitutional Provisions say you cannot question the acts of PNDC in a court of law.”

He asked what he is being accused of and added, “Must I accept this erroneous decision of the Vetting Committee to hang on my head until I die?”

CORRECTION
Retired Chief Superintendent Yidana has stated that the Ampadu he mentioned in his interview with the DAILY GUIDE was an investigator and not a magistrate as inadvertently stated in the story.

By A.R. Gomda