43 years on: Remembering the six army chiefs and others who were executed

Today, 26 June 2022, marks 43 years since some six gallant service men and former public service holders – General Okayakie Amankwa Afrifa, Rear Admiral Amedome, General FWK Akuffo, General Kotei, Air Vice Marshall Yaw Boakye and Colonel Roger Felli – were bloodily gunned down by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) regime

Meanwhile, ten days earlier; 16 June 1979, General Kutu Acheampong and General Utuka have been executed by the bloodthirsty AFRC bandits. Also on 4 June, 1979, General Odartey Wellington had been gunned down on the streets of Nima.

While their families never got justice in the traditional sense of the word, the work of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), with then Prof Ken Agyemang Attafuah as executive secretary and Justice Kweku Etrew Amua-Sekyi, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana as its chairman, brought considerable relief, healing and closure to them and to the nation.

Ghana’s democratic history is replete with military coups, destabilising the trajectory of democracy in the country. While the regimes have been different, widespread human rights abuses is the common denominator. Before handing over power to democratic governments, leaders of these regimes were always adept to include indemnity clauses in the democratic constitutions succeeding their despotism. Thus, the 1992 constitution robs persons wronged by military regimes of the right to seek justice by way of retribution by virtue of the indemnity provisions contained therein and the proscription of criminal proceedings against the coup makers and their associates who egregiously violated fundamental human rights with impunity.

To foster healing, reconciliation and “justice”, and to address these practical concerns and constitutional challenges, the Kufuor-led administration wisely and bravely pursued restorative justice when it democratically took over power in January 2001. Having campaigned on a platform of peace, healing and national reconciliation, the NPP-led legislature passed the National Reconciliation Commission Act 2001 (Act 611). The objective of the NRC was to seek and promote national reconciliation among the people of Ghana. This was a worthy cause to pursue as 85% of Ghanaians were in favour of the creation of the commission per a 2001 CDD survey.

The work of the NRC in creatively circumventing the constitutional blockade of access to justice was novel for the country. It is important to highlight the ingenuity of the members of the commission and its renowned Executive Secretary, Professor Ken Attafuah. The team of brilliant and dedicated commissioners had the likes of Archbishop Gabriel Palmer-Buckle, Mauvi Wahab Adam, Emeer and Missionary of the Ahmadiya Muslim Mission, Gen. Emmanuel Alexander Erskine, former UNIFIL Commander, Prof. Florence Dolphyne, former Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, and Prof. Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, now a justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana as members. Dr. Sylvia Awo Mansa Boye, former Registrar of the West African Examination Council, Mr. Christian Appiagyei, former Secretary General of the Trdes Union Congress, and Ubbor Dalafu Labal II, Paramount Chief of the Sanguli Traditional Area, were the other members.

The commission’s work, administratively spearheaded by Prof. Ken Attafuah, an experienced Criminologist, Sociologist, Mediator, Investigator, former Commissioner for Human Rights in British Columbia, Canada, former Adjudicator with the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board, Management Consultant of International Distinction and Repute and Lawyer, delivered on its mandate with exceptional competence and efficiency, courage and admirable professionalism.

Indeed, Ghana’s NRC was the first truth and reconciliation commission (TRC) in living memory to have completed its work within budget and within the prescribed statutory timeframe, i.e., without exceeding its allotted duration. The work of the NRC went a long way in bringing a good measure of “justice”, closure and peace to the victims as well as the families of persons wronged mostly by the military dictatorships between independence in March 1957 and the return to constitutional rule in January 1993.

As Prof Robert Kwami Ame succinctly puts it, “The formal, but semi-judicial fact-finding mechanism of the NRC did offer all the parties involved better returns than criminal prosecution. For victims, a national forum of public and private hearings to narrate their stories of suffering at no financial cost to them offers a rare opportunity to be acknowledged and validated, free professional counselling, and the chance of future restitution and compensation. All are good returns they can only dream of getting from a criminal court…..The whole reconciliation process, then, constitutes a cautionary tale to public officers that no matter how long it takes, they will one day be called upon to account for their stewardship.”

These words stand as a living memorial to the importance of the gallant work of the NRC that worked from May 2002 to December 2004 and investigated over 4,200 complaints of egregious human rights violations and abuses by agents of the state and persons purporting to act on behalf of the state. The wise words of Prof. Kwami Ame also remind us that the day of accountability and reckoning beckons, sooner or later, for all state actors and their allies. Partly as a result of the work of the NRC, Ghana did not sink into anarchy and civil war; Ghana found peace and healing, and the energies of the people have been largely freed from the burdens of perennial hatred and cyclical vendetta, and enabled us to contribute freely to the development of our dear nation.

As the 43rd anniversary of the killing of the Generals passes today, it is our fervent prayer that the souls of all those who were killed, tortured, maimed, disappeared, exiled, Ill-treated, raped, abused, deprived of their property or otherwise humiliated or subjected to forced cannibalism and other acts of indignity, shall find peace and rest in all eternity.

May God/Allah continue to bless our homeland Ghana.

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