December 31 Coup Was A Betrayal ? Kweku Baako

Mr. Kweku Baako Jnr, Editor of the Crusading Guide, on Tuesday said the December 31, 1981 military coup was a betrayal of the spirit of the June 4, 1979 Uprising.

Baako, giving evidence at the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) admitted being part of the June 4 Military take-overs and said though it was regrettable, it was unavoidable.

He said on hindsight, Ghanaians would have been better off without all the military take-overs since independence.

He said military interventions in politics messed up their own integrity, adding that the Chairman of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), Flt Lt Jerry Rawlings once admitted that the 1979 coup had destabilized the economy.

Baako said he supported the 1979 coup in the hope that it was a process to return the county to constitutional rule and that no soldier became a serving politician.

He cited Act 62 of the Military Code, the Criminal Code of 1960 and the 1979 Constitution, which, he said, prescribed death for military coup makers and said he got out of the process because it failed to champion the ideals for which it came.

Baako said he wondered why only eight people were executed in 1979 for various offences when 257 names had been submitted.

Baako who said he was detained for almost two years at the 48 Engineer Regiment before he was jailed in various prisons, said there were occasions when people who inflicted torture were intoxicated, ?high?, or just abnormal.

He accused Chairman Rawlings of watching during the torture of the Tata Ofosu at the Osu Castle as the torture was filmed by one Riyadh. Baako said Sarkodie Addo was shot in the presence of Jerry Rawlings, then as Chairman of the AFRC.

Baako indicated he was ready to assist the Commission when invited, and would not go further into other details until he made a petition to the Commission.