Accra, June 30, GNA - Mr. Peter Ala Adjetey, a former Speaker of Parliament, on Friday said it was necessary to assert that for the rule of law to flourish in a democratic society, it was necessary not only that judges should be technically competent in their knowledge of the law.

It was also necessary that they maintained independence in their judicial conduct; "They should likewise posses enough courage to be able to withstand any attempts from whatever source to interfere with the way or manner in which they discharge their judicial functions", he said. Mr. Ala Adjetey, also a former President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), was delivering the 25th in the series of this year's Sarkodee, Koranteng-Addow and Agyepong Memorial Lecture in Accra. The lecture was instituted 25 year ago by the GBA in memory of the three judges who were abducted and murdered in the early hours of June 30, 1982.

On that fateful day the judges, Mr. Justice Fred Poku Sarkodee, Mrs. Justice Cecilia Koranteng-Addow and Mr. Justice Kwadwo Adjei Agyepong, together with a retired Army Major Sam K. Acquah were abducted during curfew hours from their homes and murdered at the Bundase Military Range in the Accra Plains and their bodies doused with petrol and set on fire. Mr. Ala Adjetey's topic was: "Murder on the Judicial Bench in Ghana-reflections on the assassination of three High Court judges 25 years ago and its aftermath".

He noted the permanent damage done to the cause of justice, the rule of law and democracy in our infant state by the cruel murders of the three judges and the retired army officer.

He asked: "Can we say that the effect of the assassination of the three judges and the retired army officer has not been such as to instill fear in those called upon to exercise the sacred responsibility of administering justice or of the management of personnel in commercial, industrial and other establishment in Ghana". He chipped in to remark: "It is not easy to answer these questions in one way or the other".

Mr. Ala Adjetey offered a practical suggestion, saying: "Surely there must be steps that can be taken by the security agencies in conjunction with the judiciary, so as to entrust every superior court judge into the hands of a senior security officer with whom he or she can communicate instantaneously at the first sign of any attempt to undermine their security".

He stated: "We have, however, after 25 years, failed to take or to put in place any concrete or positive steps to ensure that a recurrence of the assassinations would be well-nigh impossible or at least difficult to achieve".

He observed that when the announcement of the abductees were made, the then Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) which had exercised power under the 1970 Constitution, not only expressed its ignorance of their whereabouts, but also expressed its outright condemnation of the abductions which were described as an attempt to undermine the revolution, inaugurated by Flt. Lt. J.J. Rawlings on June 4,1979. Mr. Ala Adjetey said the G.B.A., after adding its condemnation of the terrible acts to those expressed by various organizations and members of the public, expressed in strong terms its misgivings about the special high-powered investigation team which the chairman of the PNDC said had been appointed, on the main ground that this committee had been headed by a member of the government. He noted: "So devastating was the effect of the assassination of the four persons that a delegation of the African Bar Association, led by its Secretary General came to Ghana and not only registered its condemnation of the murders, but also urged the government to use all its machinery and facilities to track down the culprits and bring them to book.

"It would be difficult, if not impossible, to believe that they did not know anything about the murders or that they did not support them", he said.

According to him, the government of the PNDC set up a Special Investigation Board, charged under the PNDC Law 15, with the responsibility to investigate the kidnapping and killing of the three High Court judges and the retired army officer which had taken place on June 30, 1982 and to investigate any other matter which appeared to them to be reasonably related to the kidnapping of the four persons.

Mr. Ala Adjetey said the Board's outcome on March 30, 1983 found as a fact that there was evidence which, if believed, would support a conclusion that 10 persons were implicated in the kidnapping or abduction of the three high court judges and the retired army officer and therefore, should be prosecuted for their complicity in the said crimes.

He listed the persons as Lance Corporals - S.K. Amedeka, Michael Senyah, Gordon Kwowu, Nsurowuo, Gomeleshio, Sergeant Alolga Akata-Pore, Captain (rtd) Kojo Tsikata, Ransford Jonny Dzandu, Evans Tekpor, alias Tonny and J. Amartey Kwei.

The speaker said there were many at the Bar who were disappointed at the position taken by the Attorney General, not to prosecute five of those who were implicated.

According to him, the Attorney General stated: "I cannot in justice and good conscience institute criminal proceedings against Lance Corporals Kwowu, Nsurowuo, Gomeleshio, Sergeant Akata-Pore and Captain Tsikata, against whom the Board has made adverse findings". "Be it as it may, the recommendations of the Special Investigation Board were implemented as decided by the learned Attorney General so that only some of the persons allegedly implicated in the abduction and the assassination of the four persons were prosecuted". He said they were duly found guilty and sentenced to death. That, Kwei, Dzandu, Senyah and Tekpor were executed by firing squad, while Amedeka was tried in his absence and sentenced to death, but he succeeded in breaking jail during the June 19 1983 abortive coup and had managed to escape justice up to now.

So therefore, in the year 2004, the Judicial Council decided to 'immortalise the souls' of the three eminent judges by erecting their busts estimated at 500 million-cedi at the forecourt of the Supreme Court building, as a reminder of their supreme sacrifices to the nation. In the case of Major (rtd) Acquah, he was at the time of his death GIHOC's Group Personnel Director.

Mr. Solomon Kwame Tetteh, a Senior Legal Practitioner, chaired the lecture.

In attendance were the Chief Justice, Mrs. Georgina Theodore Wood, Ministers of State, Members of Parliament, members of the Bar and the Bench, among others.