Revelations on judge's murder soon

(The Statesman) -- One of the most explosive documents on the kidnap and murder of the three High Court judges and retired army officer is about to hit the newsstands. Information available to The Statement shows the book-“Who killed the judges?”- authored by Chief Superintendent J.J. Yidana is by far, the most authoritative on the issue. This book is to be launched soon.

Yidana, who was in charge of the investigation into the dastardly act, was said to be so meticulous in his approach to his assignment that he is alleged to have made enemies as a result of stepping on some big toes. Consequently, not long after the conclusion of investigations into the abductions and murder, he was in a strange move, arrested and charged for harboring a criminal.

After his trial and his wife and others by the National Public Tribunals, he was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment with hard labour. Strangely enough, even though he served his full term on July 8, 1988, he was still kept in prison for nearly four years till March 21, 1992, when he was let out of prison with serious health problems.

After a period in Ghana, during which he was constantly harassed by security agents of the NDC government, he fled the country into exile in Holland.

Yidana, whose return to Ghana was made possible by the advent of Positive Change in January, 2001, is said to have made startling revelations in his yet to be released book, which will add to growing calls for the re-opening of the case, which has since 1982, become a blot on the conscience of the nation.

At the heart of the new revelations are the trails of blood that allegedly led to the doorsteps of former President Jerry John Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu. Names implicated in the heinous crime have all been those associated with the PNDC whose curfew at the time facilitated the diabolic deed of the murderers.

PNDC members Amartey Kwei, Sgt. Alogla Akata Pore and Capt. (rtd) Kojo Tsikata were allegedly mentioned as brains behind the deed, even though it was only Amartey Kwei who was sent to the stakes and executed.

Coming after “The Treason Trial of 1986, Tortured and Revolutionary Injustice,” authored by Tribunal Chairman, George Agyekum, “Who Killed the Judges?” is the new book that is bound to open yet another can of worms of the Rawlings’ era which has already become nightmarish for the former President and his wife. Already, the nearly two decades of Rawlings’ rule has earned the notorious label of the “most corrupt and brutish in the nation’s history.”