Murder Of Judges Still Remains A Mystery

THE REASON for the gruesome murder of three High Court judges and an army officer on June 30, 1982, has for years remained a mystery.

The victims were Mrs. Justice Cecilia Koranteng-Addow, Justice Fred Poku Sarkodee, Justice George Agyepong and Major Sam Acquah, a former director of Personnel at GIHOC.

It has been suggested that Lance Corporal Amedeka, who was tried and sentenced to death in absentia in connection with the judges? murder is the only missing link as to who gave the order or instigated the abduction and the cold-blooded murder of the four at Bundase, a military range near the Kpone barrier.

It was there that the charred bodies of the three High Court judges and the senior army officer were discovered after a night?s drizzle had prevented the complete burning of their bodies into ashes.

Speaking in an exclusive interview on Peace FM recently, (Wednesday, September 2, 2002 Kweku Baako Jnr., the editor-in-chief of the Crusading Guide, who was then a member of the Movement on National Affairs (MONAS) said he believes that Amedeka is the only one who can tell Ghanaians the truth and unravel the whole mystery surrounding the judges? and the army officer?s murder.

According to him, he was at the Koforidua prisons together with Amedeka, where Amedeka allegedly told him a lot of things including the murder of the judges and the Army Officer.

According to Kweku Baako, the very first day Amedeka was transferred from the Nsawam prisons to Koforidua, he confessed that ?I thank God, we didn?t kill you guys, otherwise who would be looking after me here?? adding, thank God I didn?t get you people killed?.

?I was with him. That very day there was an announcement that the Special Investigations Board (SIB) had concluded its work and that those indicted would face the Public Tribunals, Amedeka immediately went into tantrums. He couldn?t believe it. He thought something had gone wrong. He muttered all sorts of things?, recounted Baako.

Question: ?Did Amedeka confess to you who ordered the killing of the judges??

Answer: You know what? I will tell you something. I pray to God Amedeka is alive. But because he is a fugitive from justice as of now, I would pray that there would be a peculiar dispensation to allow him and others to come and tell their stories to the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC)?. Baako intimated that he happens to have had very close collaboration with Amedeka at the Koforidua prisons where he assisted Amedeka to write unofficial letters to certain persons in the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC)_ and the wife of the PNDC chairman.

The Crusading Guide editor asserted that although Amedeka had just come to the prisons, he asked him to write letters addressed to leading members of the PNDC, including Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, Captain Kojo Tsikata and Mrs. Rawlings.

According to Baako, Amedeka told him that Mrs. Rawlings was the one who was helping him (Amedeka) while he was in custody at the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI).

?Amedeka was worried about one thing- he kept suspecting that someone wanted to betray him?, claimed Baako.

He continued that the day the SIB report was made public, ?Amedeka flew into tantrums, saying someone had planned that after his trial at the Public Tribunal, he would be eventually killed and that he would not allow that to happen.

?He kept on telling me that that was not going to happen?, revealed Baako. ?This is because Amedeka initmated that he had been assured by the powers that be, that he would not be killed?.

At this juncture, the interviewer prodded him to let out the names of the said power(s) that be.

In reply, Baako said ?forgive me if I don?t qualify my language?, adding that that was why he was asking for a situation where there would be a peculiar dispensation to let people like Amedeka come and talk; even if for record purposes?.

Who and who were to be extra-judiciary disposed of for being MONAS members? Lay-by for this gripping story. You?ve read the rest, but the ones yet to come are even more revealing.

Stay tuned!