Former President Jerry Rawlings has responded to Multimedia's 'Who killed the judges? documentary saying the history has been “re-hashed†and “re-cooked†to make him and other innocent people look guilty as far as the murder of three high court judges in 1982 is concerned.
According to Rawlings, the murderers the three high court judges in 1982 were rightly punished unlike the murderers of Ya Na Yakubu Andani, who, according to him, are still walking free.
Multimedia Company limited owners of Joy News on October 2,
According to the documentary, On 30 June 1982, the three judges – Justices Kwadwo Adjei Agyepong, Poku Sarkodie and
Lance Corporal Amedeka, Tony Tekpor and Dzandu, all soldiers, had taken their captives to the
But it rained that night, so the bodies did not burn as they murderers had wanted.
Following a public outcry, the PNDC set up the Special Investigation Board (SIB) headed by former Chief Justice
It turned out that all the three judges were sitting reviewing cases brought to them by aggrieved citizens in connection with the treatment meted out to them by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council junta led by Mr Rawlings after the 4 June 1979 coup.
The army officer, Major Sam Acquah, was the head of administration at GIHOC who had signed letters that led to the dismissal of some agitating workers, including a PNDC member Joachim Amartey Kwei. Their services were terminated after they invaded Parliament House and destroyed property.
The SIB established that the abduction and murder was a plot hatched with the connivance of members of the PNDC. The Board found that the plot was master-minded by Capt. Kojo Tsikata, PNDC Member in charge of National Security. The PNDC rejected that aspect of the report and let Capt. Tsikata and four others off the hook for lack of evidence.
The remaining four of the nine suspects were jailed. When on 19 June 1983, there was a jail-break at the Nsawam Medium Prisons and the Ussher Fort Prisons, L/Cpl Amedeka escaped from captivity and has since not been seen. But his three accomplices, Tony Tekpor, Dzandu and Hekli, as well as ex-PNDC Members Amartey Kwei, were executed by firing squad.
Mr Rawlings has always insisted that before Amartey Kwei was executed, he confessed, at the stakes, to falsely accusing Mr Tsikata of involvement.
However, Jerry Rawlings believes history has been skewed to make innocent people appear guilty.
In a tweet, former President of Ghana said:
A whole documentary on the killing of the major and the judges.
An unfortunate tragedy that saw hard, swift justice
We have re-hashed and re-cooked history to make innocent people look murderous. And in the next
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 back to hang Rawlings because of the DG publications.
— Jerry John Rawlings (@officeofJJR) October 9, 2018