It’d be rather unfounded to ignore and defend the many years where dastardly acts were conducted under his watch and emerge suddenly to ‘bark’ because of an explosive documentary that seeks to bring to light some wrong doings that have gone unearthed, Editor-In-Chief of the New Crusading Guide, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako has said.
This he said in view of the recent raucous surrounding the alleged involvement of Former President Jerry John Rawlings in the murder of some judges.
Mr. Rawlings, after a documentary, “Who killed the judges” was aired on the JoyNews channel, emerged in a tweet, to describe the piece as an attempt to destroy the reputation of innocent people for a crime which has long been dealt with and perpetrators punished for same.
He did not understand why media giants, Multimedia Group Ltd will seek to do a documentary about the killing of judges 36 years ago when it equally could have investigated several other murder cases including that of the overlord of Dagbon Ya-Na Yakubu Andani and his elders.
“We have rehashed and recooked history to make innocent people look murderous. And in the next breath using the same name to endorse yourselves because Rawlings said he is cultured (compared to his predecessors). This is vicious and callous political opportunism”, his post read.
But speaking on the issue on Newsfile, Mr. Baako said the former President would’ve been in better standing if he had kept silent on the subject in the first place.
He finds it rather strange that Mr. Rawlings, even in his position as President and Chairman of the PNDC during his era, remained silent for 14 years and failed to cooperate with the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) despite several attempts by the same to get his response to damning allegations about his alleged complicity in the murder of the judges contained in the findings of the NRC report.
Even when he was subpoenaed to appear before the Commission with two videos, he failed to provide them with the explanation that the videos were in the custody of a man who had died.
Quoting page 139 of the Executive summary of a report released by the National Reconciliation Commission on 12 October 2004, Mr Baako read a portion of the SIB report which had named Captain Kojo Tsikata as a co-conspirator in the killing of the judges.
The report further stated that Tsikata, a former National Security advisor could not have carried out the heinous acts without clearance from a higher authority, who was then the military head of state, Fl Lt Jerry John Rawlings.
“Mr. Rawlings is a Ghanaian citizen, he is entitled to react to anything he finds adverse to his interest…but I would have wished he kept quiet. If I was his advisor, I would have said, ‘Sir, silence is golden relative to this particular incident”, he said. “Where was Mr. Rawlings when the NRC pronounced its verdict? NRC was not documentary, it was something that was under parliament. The NRC report had threatened to punish the judges……. A serious verdict by a commission of that nature, you were a chairman of the PNDC and all that, what was his reaction to such an explosive?” “You are worried about a documentary by a journalist or a radio station? So he begins to make noise all over the place when this document stays forever and ever?” he quizzed.
“I expected that this rather would have elicited a more serious reaction from him not the noise but why did he let this go, why did he let this go? Apart from the noises he made? In terms of the real value? 14 years down the line, you are now coming to talk about the fundamental distinction between justice for four people and injustice for 40 people. That’s not the resolution, for you who became Chairman for the PNDC and president subsequently, he missed a great opportunity, 13 times, he was invited before the NRC to come and respond to allegations and things people had made about him, and there was a procedure to follow. 13 times, he refused or failed, he rather was arguing with them left right center”.
“Rawlings didn’t have the requisite capacity to appear before the Commission, but if it was a chop bar or rally, he is ready to do cowboyism. He was in charge when the serial murders occurred, the last one happened when he was no longer in office. But he had information to the effect according to him, that 14 cabinet ministers were implicated”, he added.
If Mr. Rawlings, Mr. Baako said, talks about all these things, “he should look at himself in the mirror and ask himself that what has been his contribution in resolving these ones. Some he was in office, he had something to do, some he wasn’t in office but he said he had something of evidential value to provide; nil”.
“I pray Mr. Rawlings exercises silence”, he added.
