General News of Saturday, 5 June 2010

Source: GNA

June 4 principles are timeless-Amenowode

Ho, June 5, GNA - Mr Joseph Amenowode, Volta Regional Minister has observed that the principle of

accountability, which prompted June 4 uprising in 1979 is timeless and would therefore remain relevant to

national development at all times. He said the principle would continue to attract proponents from one generation to the other. Mr Amenowode made the observation at a symposium in Ho on Friday to mark the 31st Anniversary of

the June 4 uprising, when mutinous soldiers, mainly young officers and non-commissioned personnel

overthrew the ruling Supreme Military Council. He said the uprising led by Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings in 1979 sought to marshal the citizenry against

corruption, ineptitude and deprivation at that time.

Mr Amenowode said the onus was on today's generation to pass on to the youth the truth about the

conditions that ignited the uprising in order to put the event in the right historical perspective. "We should continue to indoctrinate our young ones on what the uprising stood for and not just about

the killings and excesses," the Minister said. Mr Frank Adoba, former Director, Public Education of the National Commission on Civic Education said

June 4 represented a landmark antecedent to the current democratic dispensation in the country. He justified the return to power of Flight Lieutenant Rawlings on 31st December 1981 under the

Provincial National Defence Council, which ushered the country into a constitutional multiparty era in 1992. Mr Henry Ametepe, Regional Co-ordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation cautioned

the Constitutional Review process against expunging the transitional provisions in the 1992 Constitution,

which protected coup makers against prosecution. The symposium was attended by mainly members of the 31st December Women's Movement and former

cadres of the revolution.