‘Montie 3’ are criminals

When the news was relayed via newspaper review on television yesterday that a group of chiefs from the Ga Traditional Council had backed calls on President John Dramani Mahama to invoke Article 72 of the 1992 Constitution and grant pardon to the Montie 3, I was shocked.

Why should respected chiefs descend into the gutters with reckless elements within the National Democratic Congress, making ugly noises about justice that has been tempered with mercy, I mused.

When I read the relevant newspaper and learned that the so-called appeal was launched on behalf of the council by Nii Ayibonte II, known in private life as Tommy Okine, one-time Team Manager of Accra Hearts of Oak, I was at peace with myself.

Mr. Tommy Okine was one of the those characters who got Hearts of Oak to reject a donation of ten million cedis (¢10 million), quite a substantial sum at the time, from then New Patriotic Party presidential candidate John Agyekum Kufuor, as his token to the then Champion Club of Ghana, when the longest surviving football club in this country was at the final stages of the African Champions League in the year 2000.

The interesting point here is that when Hearts won the cup, Mr. Kufuor sat at the Castle as Constitutional President of the Republic of Ghana. Hearts, with Tommy Okine as Team Manager, had no option than to present the cup they won to him.

At the time Mr. Kufuor’s donation was rejected, Mr. Ato Ahwoi, veteran National Democratic Congress guru, who was fined at the Supreme Court as part owner of the Montie FM debacle, was a Director of Accra Hearts of Oak.

For me, the statement purported to have been issued by the Ga Traditional Council, and relayed via Nii Ayibonte II, is a solidarity message from an NDC guru. I do not sincerely believe that the entire Ga Traditional Council, do, indeed, back the call for the release of the ‘Montie 3.’

I have heard several ugly noises, mainly from the viewpoint of activists of the ruling NDC, urging President John Dramani Mahama, apparently, to call off the bluff of the Supreme Court and release the notorious ‘Montie 3’ –Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn and Salifu Maase, alias Mugabe, from prison.

Like many things originating from NDC circles, no one is discussing the gravity of the offence committed by these wayward characters. These are people who have threatened, live on radio, to assassinate judges of this nation’s highest court, on the flimsy excuse that they had delivered justice that did not go down well with the NDC.

The threat dovetails into the ugly noises that led to the abduction of three high court judges and an army officer in 1982. Incidentally, the threat on our justices of the Supreme Court was made on June 29, the eve of the 34th anniversary of murders so foul.

The Akans, the largest ethnic group in Ghana with nearly half the population, would tell you: EHU BI PEN NTI NA ABOA ASEREWA OGYEGYE NE BA A, NA WOEYI NENI ANTO NKYEN. In the Queen’s language, it loosely translates as: Experience is the best teacher.

The bitter experience of June 30, 1982, nearly destabilised the country. Unfortunately, its antecedent bears a semblance of the threat issued on radio by the “Montie 3.’ When Jerry John Rawlings seized power on watch night of 1981- (December 31, 1981), there were ugly noises from some officials of the Provisional National Defence Council, the military junta, and their cadres.

Their beef was that by sitting on review cases brought by victims of the excesses of the previous military junta – the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council – judges were reversing the gains of the revolution, and, therefore, classified in those days as enemies of the revolution.

As the ugly noises became more pronounced, it emerged that three high court judges and an army officer had been abducted during curfew hours on June 30, 1982. As tongues wagged about the motives of the abduction, Jerry John Rawlings addressed the nation on radio and television, and announced that ‘enemies of the revolution’ had carried out the deeds, promising, in typical crocodile tears fashion, to hunt down the perpetrators and bring them to book.

When the chips were down, it emerged that the three high court judges and the retired army officer – Mr. Justice Poku Sarkodie, Mr. Justice Kwadwo Adjei Agyapong, Mrs. Cecelia Koranteng-Addow and Major Sam Acquah – were sent to Bundase, a military installation, and cruelly murdered. Petrol was poured on their bodies, with the intention of burning them into ashes to remove every trace of the crime.

For the uninitiated, Mrs. Justice Cecelia Koranteng-Addow was a nursing mother. She was breast-feeding her baby girl, when she was forcibly abducted and driven 50 miles to Bundase in the Shai Hills during curfew hours, and slaughtered with her colleagues.

God Almighty is a Ghanaian, I dare state. On that day, though the whole Ghana was experiencing severe drought, rain fell only where the captives were deposited, and that doused the flames. A shepherd tending his cattle chanced upon their charred bodies the next day and raised the alarm.

The interesting scenario in the drama is that three of the four murderers – Michael Senya, Terkpor Hekli and Jonny Dzandu – were all residing in the boys’ quarters of the Ridge Residence of Mr. and Mrs. Rawlings.

The vehicle used by the murderers – a brand new Fiat Campagnola Jeep, was part of the fleet of state vehicles. On the night before the exercise, the vehicle was withdrawn from its position at the State House and parked at the residence of the Rawlingses. The key was retrieved from a table in the living room of the Rawlingses on the day of the operation.

It is instructive to recall that L/Cpl Samuel Amedeka, who led the sordid operation, told the open Special Investigation Board, chaired by Mr. Justice Azu C rabbe, which was put up by the PNDC under pressure to probe the abduction and murders, that at the time they were carrying out the operation, all the perpetrators were convinced that they were carrying out the instructions of the Provisional National Defence Council. After all, they had killed and maimed in the name of the PNDC all over the place.

The news is that Mr. Rawlings has protested his innocence till this day. That is history, but suffice it to state that at the commemoration of the sordid deed three years ago, Very Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Asante, then Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church, made my day with this pronouncement: “Justice comes from the Bible; and judges are God-chosen ambassadors of the earth, so if you kill a judge, because he or she carries out legitimate duty of bringing justice, you incur the wrath of God.”

Good old Rev. Prof. Asante is now Chairman of the National Peace Council. There are those who hold the view that too much cemetery silence from the council towards the pressure of NDC activists on President John Dramani Mahama to release the ‘Montie 3’criminals, and that silence is worrying.

Equally worrying is the fact that otherwise respected ministers of state, including Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyeman and Nana Oye Lithur, have joined the clamour for the release of these criminals. Is there anything in the NDC that makes otherwise respected people irrational?

I was, and I am still in shock that Member of Parliament for North Dayi, who was also one of the lead counsels for the jailed panelists, chose to describe these criminals as martyrs of democracy. “They have become martyrs of democracy. They are going in there so that the whole of the media will become a better place.”

The response from one reader sums up the repulsive reaction of the ordinary people of Ghana towards the ugly noises assailing our airwaves and print media over the ‘Montie 3’ and the need for a Presidential pardon for them.

“I’m saddened by George Loh’s comment,” said Agyenim Boateng, a reader, in response to the MP. “How can they become martyrs of democracy? These are criminals who deserve many years in jail.”

I shall return!