Kojo Tsikata can be tried for murder

A retired Supreme Court judge, Mr. Justice G. E. K. Aikins, has said Captain Kojo Tsikata (rtd.), former Security Adviser to the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), who was implicated in the murder of the three high court judges and the retired army officer, but was not tried then, can now be tried for murder if fresh evidence is offered.

Sharing the same view, another prominent personality who also served in the defunct Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) regime, Mr. Johnny Hansen said that he would cooperate, should investigations reopen into the abduction and murder of three High Court judges and a retired Army officer in June, 1983 during the PNDC regime.

Speaking separately to the Chronicle at the Kaneshie Presbytarian Church, Accra, after a remembrance service to mark the 19th anniversary of the sordid incident last Saturday, the two who were then the interior secretary and attorney general respectively, held the opinion that it is only by reopening the investigations that the truth behind the kidnapping and murder of the Judges and the army officer could be established.

Mr. G. E. K. Aikins said the Special Investigations Board (SIB) report and the law that established it stated that after the investigations the report should be submitted to the Attorney General for action to be taken.

He said the report recommended that certain people should be prosecuted and in his view, he agreed with that recommendation.

The former attorney general told the Chronicle that at the time there was not sufficient evidence to prosecute a few of the people suspected to be connected with the murder. Among them were Captain Kojo Tsikata and Sergeant Aloga Akata-Pore, both key members of the then PNDC.

Touching on why he did not prosecute Capt. Tsikata, Mr. Aikins said the person who spoke vociferously about Tsikata's alleged involvement in the murder was Amartey Kwei, who said that Capt. Kojo Tsikata gave him a note to give to Amedeka instructing him to go round and arrest the victims.

He said Amedeka, in his statement and evidence before the Board, said he did not receive any note from Amartey Kwei. This non-corroboration of Amartey Kwei 's allegation by Amedeka weakened the case of the prosecution, Justice Aikins added.

He added, "so that if you put Tsikata before the court the evidence will be what Amartey Kwei said, but that had been neutralized by Amedeka. So I felt that at the close of the prosecution the court would acquit him and if he was acquitted that would be the end of the case but there were pieces of evidence and a number of people couldn't come to the board, so I stated that I would leave the people and if at a later date evidence became available then they could be prosecuted."

Mr. Aikins noted that after so many years evidence is now emerging, so if he had prosecuted Capt. Tsikata then he would not face any trial again because he would have pleaded autrefois acquit to bar any subsequent prosecution.

In criminal prosecution and based on the fundamental principle that a person should not be prosecuted twice for the same offence, an accused person charged with an offence which is the same as an offence in respect of which he has previously been acquitted, may tender a plea of autrefois acquit to bar a subsequent trial.

"If Tsikata had been tried and acquitted then that would have been a bar to any future prosecution," Justice Aikins said, adding, "if there is fresh evidence against these suspects, as some people now claim they have, Capt. Tsikata and the rest can be prosecuted."

According to him, he was aware that some people were afraid to give evidence about what they know about the murders.

To Mr. Aikins, what he said decades ago has now become a prophecy.

He debunked claims that government issued a white paper after the investigations of the kidnapping and murder of the judges and the army officer.

Mr. Aikins revealed that after the submission of the SIB report, he wrote a comment in his capacity as the Attorney-General of the state and "it is this comment that people have misconstrued as a White Paper."

On his part, Mr. Johnny Hansen said there are so many grey areas in the whole exercise of the investigations into the murders. According to him, the evidence before the SIB clearly suggests that the matter should be reopened in order to get the truth of the whole issue.

The former PNDC Secretary for the Interior cited recent revelations by Mr. K. Kwabena Agyepong, son of Mr. Justice K. A. Agyepong, on of the slain judges as an example of the need for the case to reopen.

Giving a detailed account of what actually happened during that dark period of the nation's history, Mr. Hansen said the night before the kidnapping there were rumours of a coup plot, so his cousin, Dr. Emma Hansen, who was a Secretary to the PNDC, suggested they should move out of their homes. So they left for Legon where they slept in a car.

He said the following morning the late Justice Fred Apaloo informed him that some judges had been abducted.

Mr. Hansen stated that he then summoned a meeting of all the security chiefs to find out what had happened.

It was during the course of the meeting that Mr. I. B. Quantson, who was then the head of the Special Branch, suggested that the act must have been perpetrated by army personnel, so they should focus their attention on the army.

Suddenly they heard that Amedeka had been arrested. He said at that point, he, as the secretary for the interior, did not know that the judges and the army officer had been murdered.

Followiang the arrest of Amedeka, the then Inspector General Police (IGP) set up the Yidana Committee, which started investigations into the kidnapping of the judges and the army officer.

Mr. Hansen revealed that it was the arrest of Amedeka that blew the lid off the murder.