Rawlings a Murderer? I say Hmmm!

A word boomed in Parliament and was used to describe President J.J. Rawlings, when his daughter, Zenator was said to be a daughter of a murderer.

The Anlo chiefs are up in arms, advising the Speaker of Parliament to produce the owner of that voice on or before, today, February 10, 2025, or else….!

Was Rawlings a murderer?

Some Rawlings apologists are claiming he was not a murderer. Lawyer Amalibaof the NDC, said there was no evidence of Rawlings going about shooting to kill people so he couldn’t have been a murderer. And TV3 presenter, Johnnie Bite wanted to imply that the Reconciliation Commission set up by Kufuor cleansed Rawlings off all excesses in his regimes.

Unfortunately, the Rawlings’ never accepted that gesture. For, in February 2008, at a reception in honour of US president George Bush, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings publicly snubbed and refused to shake hands with, Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle, because he was part of the Reconciliation Commission.

To Lawyer Amaliba,how would he describe King Leopold II of Belgium, who had 10 million Africans in Congo killed?Andwhat about Adolf Hitler and the over 6 million Jews killed in his concentration camps?None of these two went physically killing their victims.

Now, back to Ghana. On June 16, 1979, after the June 4 Uprising and the formation of the bloody regime of the AFRC government led by Rawlings, when no one was anticipating any more killings, a former head of state,Gen. Acheampong, 47, and Major General Utuka, 42, were tied to the stack and shot dead. Ghanaians were told on radio, that the two used their positions to amass wealth and recklessly dissipated state funds to the detriment of the country. Acheampong was also convicted of overthrowing the constitutional government of Busia’s Progress Party.

The clarion call,“Let the Blood Flow”was soundedby some youth led by Kwaku Baako Jnr and some socialists. And the blood did flow. On June 27, 1979, two former heads of state, Gen Afrifa and Gen. Fred Akuffo together with Col. Roger Felli, Rear Admiral Joy Amedume, Major Gen. Robert Kotei, and Air Vice Marshal George Boakye, were shot dead at the firing squad. They were convicted of committing the same offences as Acheampong and Utuka.Amedume, an Anlo, from Anloga, was killed for lawfully acquiring a loan of ¢50,000.00 (GH¢5.00) from a bank to build a house.

During the Rawlings led AFRC and PNDC eras, there were lots of cases of killings of people perceived to be anti-revolutionary. Godwin Mawuli Goka is one such person.Brother Kugah, of the Catholic Church was killed by what people suspected to be due to mistaken identity.

On June 30, 1982, some High Court justices, Fred Poku Sarkodee, Cecilia Koranteng-Addow and Kwadwo Agyei Agyepong, together with Major Rtd Sam Acquah; a retired Army Officer were abducted and murdered in cold blood.During the constitutional regime of Limann’s era, the judges had overturned the long jail sentences imposed by the AFRC on its victims and Major Sam Acquah who was then in GIHOC, stopped workers’ uprising.

The killings were blamed onJoachim AmarteyQuaye, a cabinet member of Rawlings’ PNDC government. He was tried, found guilty and executed. But many Ghanaians today, feel full justice was not served, because of speculations of Rawlings’ direct involvement in the killings.Finding the need to be exonerated, Rawlings went to extract confession, on tape, from Amartey Quaye before he was killed, but that recording was nevermade public to this day.

The Anlo chiefs could have stopped Rawlings from killing the innocent. They know how to approach him and talk to him.Why did they not?

Forty-one years after the killings of the generals, Rawlings, in a two-part interview on Asaase FM, hosted by Kwaku Sakyi-Addo,confessed that none of the eight committed any crime. Afrifa was being too provocative, he said. Andheadded that the General was a rogue because he embezzled funds, meant for his group to challenge Acheampong’s UNIGOV concept, and used it to oust Paa Willie fromthe leadership of UNC in 1979. This does not add up; Afrifa never contested leadership or flag bearer of the UNC.

About the others killed, Rawlings, said they were innocent but had to be sacrificed for the lives of hundreds of guilty ones.

If Rawlings came out toexonerate all the eight men he had killed, saying they were innocent, then what was he?

And if it was treason to overthrow a constitutional government, what did Rawlings do on December 31, 1981? If it was a crime punishable by death to acquire wealth and property, then what about the properties he acquired which were beyond his means? What about thefour and a half acres of prime land he acquired on leasehold at GH¢10.00 a year for ninety years?

In all, are the Anlo chiefs not aware thata pure Anlo, Joy Amedume, was killed by a fellow Anlo, Rawlings for committing no crime? What are they saying about that?Utuka, a non-Ewe, was killed just to add a Voltarian to the list and make it seem that two Ewes were killed.

It is on record that Rawlings recorded the torturing and killing of Giwa and Sarkodee Addo.In conclusion I ask, what do you call such a person? What was Rawlings? Hmmmm.

Hon. Daniel Dugan

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The Chronicle’s stance.

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