Digesting the NDC founders labyrinth mindset: Did they really murder the Judges?

Some of us are extremely dumbfounded to hear the NDC apologists squalling and questioning the rationale behind the Multimedia’s recent documentary on the needless and barbaric killing of the three prominent Judges and the Army Officer on 30^th June 1982.

Understandably, though, the NDC faithful would never agree with some of us for persistently critiquing the current affairs through the lenses of the past events. But I am afraid we cannot make sense of the present happenings if we refused to take stock of the past events.

To be quite honest, some of us cannot help but to shrill, grouch, censure and highlight the revoltingly risible proclivities of the devotees of the 31^st December 1981 coup d’état.

“June 30th 1982 continues to remain a dark spot in the nation’s political history and a nightmare for all judges in the country, after the three High Court Judges namely, Mr. Justice Fred Poku Sarkodie, Mrs. Justice Cecilia Koranteng- Addow and Mr. 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, after being abducted on the night by some unidentified assailants (rawafrica.com).”

“If you would look deeper, history is broad yet deep that binds the core existence of the world. Hence, history keeps the records of events that happened.

“History is a lesson in the past but can also be the greatest regret of the future. Yet the reason why there is history is because of the events that were created by man (Hughes 2010).”

The apparent hypocrisy and dishonesty being displayed by the NDC loyalists is mind-boggling, I must admit.

It is quite ironic that the NDC faithful have soon forgotten their history, or should I say their ideology?

In any case, I feel duty bound as a bona fide Ghanaian to offer free remedial history tutorials to the benighted and the younger generation.

June 1979, some ^th On 4rabble rousers unjustifiably released convicts and suspects from a lawful custody, including the founder of the NDC, J. J. Rawlings.

The June 1979 jailbreakers released suspects and convicts from a lawful penitentiary, deposed the government at the time, ruled despotically for over eleven years and went ahead and formed a political party, called the National Democratic Congress, (NDC).

If we revisit our history, on 15^th May 1979, a group of disgruntled junior army officers, led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings failed in their insurrection against General Fred Akuffo’s regime, which culminated in the arrest and trial of Rawlings and his cohorts.

However, the judicial process was halted prematurely by a group of soldiers sympathetic to Rawlings, who revolted on 4^th June 1979.

The rebellious soldiers subsequently broke jail and released Rawlings and his cohorts from a lawful custody.

After successfully deposing General Akuffo and his Supreme Military Council (SMC) government, the stubbornly impenitent jailbreakers went ahead and formed their own government, which they called as the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and appointed Flt. Rawlings as their chairman.

Rawlings and his rabble rousers vowed to lustrate the country of the perceived sleazes, corruption and social injustices which instigated their coup d’état.

So in their attempt to purge the country of the perceived injustices, they carried out what they termed “house cleaning exercise”,--they dealt with perceived offenders arbitrarily.

The mutinous jailbreakers proceeded with their intentions and callously exterminated prominent people including General Fred Akuffo, General Kutu Acheampong, General Akwasi Afrifa and many others.

After getting rid of individuals they viewed as a threat to their hidden agenda, the jailbreaking cabals decided to conduct general elections for political parties in the same year-1979.

Following the successful election, Dr Hilla Limann and his People’s National Party (PNP) won the day in 1979.

Disappointingly, however, Rawlings and his cohorts did not give Dr Liman and his PNP government the breathing space to govern the country, as they inexorably breathed down the neck of President Liman.

Indeed, Rawlings and his conspiratorial plotters unfairly kept criticising Dr Limann’s administration for what the obdurate jailbreakers perceived as economic mismanagement, until Rawlings and his jailbreaking geezers decided to depose Dr Limann.

And, to fulfil his lifetime ambition of becoming the head of state, J.J. Rawlings and the obstreperous jailbreakers took arms and succeeded in overthrowing the constitutionally elected government of Dr Hilla Limann on 31^st December 1981.

Apparently, Rawlings and his vigilante friends formed a government which they called the Provisional national Defence Council (PNDC) and appointed Rawlings as the chairman.

In their weird attempt to get rid of alleged sleazes and corruption, many Ghanaians were unjustifiably murdered or tortured mercilessly for apparent infinitesimal offences.

Some market women were regrettably stripped naked in the public and whipped for hauling their products or selling on high prices. While their male counterparts were wickedly shaved with broken bottles and whipped for offences that would not even warrant a Police caution in a civilized society.

As if that was not enough, three eminent High Court Judges and a prominent Army Officer were barbarically murdered by some mindless stooges of PNDC on 30th June 1982 for carrying out their constitutionally mandated duties.

Apparently, stern investigations revealed that all the three Judges were sitting on review cases brought by citizens disgusted over the treatment meted out to them by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council which the military junta formed after June 4, led by Flt. Lt. Rawlings.

It was however reported that the Judges ordered the release of persons who had been unlawfully sentenced to long terms of imprisonment during the despotic rule of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC).

The Army Officer, Major Sam Acquah, was the head of administration who signed dismissal letters for some GIHOC workers, including one of the murder suspects, Joachim Amartey Kwei, whose services were terminated for invading and destroying property at the Parliament House.

Consequently, the PNDC fatuous apologists savagely murdered the three eminent High Court Judges and the Army Officer because their judgement did not go in their favour.

The Special Investigation Board (SIB) however concluded that the abduction and murder was a fiendish plot orchestrated by, and with the connivance of the members of the Provisional National Defence Council.

As a matter of fact, Ghana’s revolution days under the jailbreaking founders of the NDC could be likened to: “in the China of “the Great Helmsman,” Kim Il Sung’s Korea, Vietnam under “Uncle Ho” , Cuba under Castro, Ethiopia under Mengistu, Angola under Neto, and Afghanistan under Najibullah”.

Even though Rawlings and his conspiratorial plotters supplanted power under the pretext of acting as peripheral Panacea, they slyly spent a little over eleven years before lifting the ban on political parties in 1992.

In fact, Rawlings succumbed to the intrinsic and extrinsic political pressures for him to step down and allow multi-party democracy.

Subsequently, Rawlings lifted the ban on political parties in 1992 and resigned from the military simultaneously to allow him to contest election.

Following his retirement from the military, Rawlings and his jailbreaking cabals went ahead and formed a political party, which they named as the National Democratic Congress (NDC), a progeny of PNDC.

In sum, for the uninitiated NDC supporters, the NDC was born out of a coup d’état, and will ever harbour a coup maker’s mentality.

K. Badu, UK.
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