Opinions of Thursday, 3 November 2011

Columnist: Agyekum, Sunday Atara Abraham

MSJ - Prof. Mills Must Find Ya Na Killers

In March 2010, a very gruesome murder took place in the Gbewa palace at Yendi. This resulted in the death of Ya Na Yakubu Andani II. The people of Yendi especially those of the Andani Gate did not take this kindly at all. It is a known fact that, the state has a responsibility to ensure that justice is delivered to all Ghanaians. It is only when this is achieved that a government can be referred to as good.

The Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) was happy when Prof. John Evans Atta Mills promised the people of Yendi that the NDC has undisputable evidence to win a case against the killers of Ya Na in order to ensure Justice on the matter. We wish to remind President Mills that, in his 2008 manifesto, he promised the chiefs and people of Dagbon and all Ghanaians that if voted into power, he would set up a “truly non-partisan, competent independent commission on the murder of the Ya Na Yakubu Andani II and his elders for long lasting peace in Ghana”. We want President Mills to understand that, we are very disappointed at him and his administration for failing to honour his campaign promise of bringing justice and restoring dignity to the family of the late King. The President must spare us his double standards especially when he decided to rely on the Wuaku Commission’s Report and recommendations, which Prof Mills himself, and the entire NDC, had earlier rejected, and described as a false report, to initiate the prosecution.

We find it not up to scratch that President Mills has been in office for 3 years and has not been able to ensure justice for the people of Ghana on the issue of the Murder of Ya Na, the late overlord of the Dagbon State.

It is time politicians started to live up to their very words. For a very long time, people aspiring for political positions in Ghana have disgorged outrageous promises which they know very well that they cannot fulfil. This trend must stop now!

We are calling on His Excellency the President, Professor John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills (A.K.A. ASOMDWEHENE) to be the foremost campaigner to put an end to these empty and unfulfilled promises which is gradually becoming an albatross. We are very sanguine that this can be brought to an end if the President is able to find the killers of the late King.

The existence of governments means that the people surrender their individual right of self defence to the state. When the state is unable, with all her coercive forces, to fight for the rights of any affected citizen and ensure justice, it indicts the President and the relevant state institutions as ineffective.

The people of Dagbon and all other Ghanaians deserve justice. It is the duty of government to provide this justice. We are urging Prof. Mills’s government to do everything possible within its powers to deliver justice to the people of Dagbon now!

We share in Martin Luther King Jnr’s axiom that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We believe that justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.

Spokesperson: Agyekum Sunday Atara Abraham 0209052856 1st November, 2011