June Fourth Holiday Will Be Back -JJ

The non-celebration of June 4 as a public holiday is a temporary setback, ex-president Jerry John Rawlings has said. Addressing a public forum to commemorate the 24th anniversary of the June 4 Uprising in Accra on Wednesday, he urged those who had joined him to "remember this significant turning point in our nation's history" not to despair that it was no longer a public holiday.

"I'm glad we've observed a minute’s silence for those who gave their lives. We have gathered here to mark the 24th anniversary of the June 4 uprising and to remember this significant turning point in our nation's history, make no mistake about it, my brothers, we are going through trying times.

"The time will come soon when the celebration of June 4 will be a permanent, national feature of this country", he predicted.

Ex-President Rawlings reiterated his previous statement that God gave President J.A. Kufuor power to demonstrate to the people the difference between the NDC and the NPP.

"So when tomorrow comes nobody will open his mouth and say "moko aya nimoko aba", a Ga phrase which can simply be translated as "somebody must go as another comes".

"Taflatse", he said "ke moko baaya ni moko babaa sani moni baaba le, ehie better, higher, quality than the one before".

This means, should somebody go for the other, the new must have higher and better qualities than the former.

The Ex-President threatened to expose 15 top officials in the ruling NPP administration for master minding the killing of 34 women in the run up to the 2000 general elections.

"There is so much more to say but at the appropriate time will do so", he promised.

He also declared his preparedness to undergo a lie detector chemical interrogation to prove whether or not he is saying the truth about the murder of the three High court judges.

Mr. Rawlings also accused the Kufuor administration of employing lies in all its activities.

He said, "truth, to them, (the NPP government) is an essential commodity. The founder of the NDC admitted that there were some excesses that they couldn't control during the June 4 uprising".

On his part, the NDC presidential candidate for the 2004 general elections, Prof. Evans Atta Mills, accused the NPP government of using the judiciary to intimidate and harass its opponents.

He said: "the trio in jail for the quality trial are political prisoners, adding: "Mr. Victor Selormey is one, likewise Mallam Yusif Isa who was used as a scapegoat for Kufuor's zero tolerance for corruption thing".