Today marks the 40th anniversary of the cold-blooded murder of our three high court judges and a retired military officer by agents of the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC).
The dastardly act calculated to intimidate a whole nation rather served as a wake-up call to a nation in the stifling grip of an ossified dictatorship.
On the 30th of June in 1982, three High Court judges; Justices Kwadwo Adjei Agyepong, Poku Sarkodie and Mrs Cecelia Koranteng-Addow, a nursing mother were killed.
The three justices were murdered together with a retired Major in the Ghana Armed Forces. Sam Acquah, the retired major, was the Director of Personnel at the Ghana Industrial Holding Corporation (GIHOC).
The four were branded as ‘enemies of the revolution’ by the then Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) which was led by Mr Jerry John Rawlings.
It turned out that all the three judges were sitting reviewing cases brought to them by aggrieved citizens in connection with the treatment meted out to them by the AFRC junta led by Mr Rawlings after June 4, 1979, coup.
As for Major Sam Acquah, his crime was that he had signed letters that led to the dismissal of some agitating workers, including a PNDC member Joachim Amartey Kwei.
This painful episode must forever remind us that never again should any authority be allowed to set upon any citizen of this land and, without due process, deny them of their freedom or their life.
Source: Mybrytnewsroom.com/Kwabena Nyarko Abronoma
