"People's" funeral to be held for judges

A people's funeral is to be held throughout the country for the three High Court Judges and the retired Army Officer who were murdered in June 1982 on the 18th anniversary of their death which falls on June, 30, 2001.

It will be under the theme " Cry Justice." Three High Court Judges, Mrs. Justice Cecilia Koranteng- Addow, Justice K. Sarkodie, Justice K. A. Agyepong and Major (rtd) Sam K. Acquah were picked from their homes in the night and murdered in cold blood and partially burnt by unidentified security agents.

Some members of the PNDC including Amartey Kwei were subsequently charged with the act and sentenced to death by firing squad.

Addressing a news conference in Accra on Monday, Nii B. K. Yemoh, Co-ordinator of the Victims of June four said that the murder of these prominent people has become a blot on country's fabric and bother to the national conscience.

"This is not about politics or playing to the gallery", he stressed. " It is time, therefore to resolve the matter once and for all... and lay it to rest in the spirit of national reconciliation especially now that the regime under which this crime was committed, is out of power."

He said over the years the remembrance of the murdered judges had been the preserve of the Ghana Bar Association and that this mass funeral is to embrace the entire relatives of the victims and all Ghanaians and more so "the over 250 people who were subjected to extra- judicial killings."

Nii Yemoh called for a second look at the report by the Special Investigation Board (SIB) charged to investigate the murders. "We fully support all the calls for a second and deeper look at most heinous crime against citizens of Ghana, deliberately and callously killed in their line of duty."

He questioned why Chief Superintendent Jacob Yidana who led the investigative team of the SIB was persecuted thereafter and imprisoned, and forced to remain in detention even after he has completed his sentence.

He accused Former President Rawlings of deceiving the entire nation in a broadcast on July 4 1983 about the whereabouts of the victims when Amartey Kwei had earlier informed him on July 2 that they had been murdered.

He appealed to all those who lost their wives, husbands and relatives to take advantage of what he described as the new air of freedom of the new government and come out to join hands to be accorded the recognition and dignity that they deserved, even after death.

Nii Yemoh said families of some of the victims they have contacted have been 'cocooned' in the sorrow of their losses and therefore disabled from a lot of things common to all human beings.

He said together with other human rights and pro-democracy organisations, " we intend to mobilise public opinion to ensure that the souls of the three High Court Judges and the retired army officer, as well as all those murdered in pursuit of certain political and parochial agenda, get the deserved justice."

"Human blood, soul and spirit are too precious and potent to be so unduly shed and sacrificed on the altar of parochial politics, revolutionary or constitutional." - africast/GNA