Never Again!

Twenty-nine years ago, June 30, 1982, Ghana and indeed the rest of the civilized world woke up to a stunning news story.

Three High Court Judges, Justice Mrs. Justice Koranteng-Addow, Messrs Justice Kwadwo Agyei-Agyepong and Justice Fred Sarkodie, paid the ultimate price for upholding the ideals of the rule of law at the hands of blood-sucking murderers.

They acted on the orders of their masters who lurked in the safe confines of the highest office of the land they had surreptitiously usurped, sandwiched between sandbags and high on marijuana.

The grisly murder of the three judges, one of them a lactating mother, showed how diabolic the murderers were.

For daring to reverse the extra-judicial sentences slapped on so-called enemies of the revolution, they were killed and to date, the case remains one of the country’s legal conundrums.

It was a blight that would forever haunt the conscience of the nation, especially in view of its inconclusiveness and brutishness. Certain chapters in the history of this country can never be obliterated. The murder of these fine sons and daughter of the land in cold blood is one of them.

Today, as we remember some of our finest citizens who had to work at a time when the country was forcefully taken to the brink, at gunpoint, our hearts are heavy with pain.

We share in the pain which the children of these gentlemen and lady, the bar and bench are going through on a day like this. They were herded away to their untimely deaths as their loved ones looked on helplessly, their tear-drenched faces a disturbing spectacle.

Let those whose hearts were broken take consolation in the fact that their loved ones died serving their motherland, never forsaking the principles of justice which they swore to uphold. They did so even at the peril of their lives, leaving their names inscribed on the tablet of gold as martyrs.

As we join in remembering the departed, the martyrs, we recall what William Blair, elder brother of one-time Prime Minister of Britain, said during the 2005 Remembrance Day function at which he spoke.

He said that it was the most terrible crime in the country’s history and we could not agree more with this description of the act.

As we undertake the various rites commemorating this melancholic moment, we recall the position of a one-time Ghana Bar Association President when he expressed worry about the still inexplicable circumstances surrounding the murder of the judges.

We are supportive of Mr. Adu-Gyamfi’s worry which we find as valid, as it was then as it is today. The cause of justice would be served better if the authorities heed the calls for a re-opening of the case so that at the end of it all, the families of the departed can heave a sigh of relief that justice has been done.

Never again should our country be subjected to such a criminal enterprise with the subtle connivance of junta leaders.

Mrs. Justice Koranteng-Addow, Messrs. Justice Kwadwo Agyei-Agyepong and Justice Fred Poku Sarkodie, rest in perfect peace till the day of reckoning when the wicked shall be judged by the Omnipotent and Omniscient who alone is the ultimate adjudicator.

Source: Editorial (d-Guide)