Rev. Dogbe decries politicisation of national issues
The Pastor in charge of the Aggrey Memorial Zion Church, Rev. Dr Hilliard K. Dela Dogbe, has stated that the increased politicisation of national issues will delay the country’s socio-economic development.
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He said people were quick to condemn the actions of others for political expediency, instead of assessing themselves to correct their own mistakes.
Rev. Dr Dogbe, who was preaching at the 33rd anniversary remembrance service for the three murdered High Court Judges yesterday, charged Ghanaians to change their attitudes and work in the interest of Ghana.
The three justices of the High Court - Mr Justice Fred Poku Sarkodee, Mrs Justice Cecilia Koranteng-Addow and Mr Justice Kwadwo Agyei Agyepong - and Major Sam Acquah, a retired army officer, were abducted at night during the curfew hours on June 30, 1982.
All of them were murdered that same night at the Bundase Military Range in the Accra Plains.
The remembrance service held at the Ridge Church in Accra was organised by the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) in collaboration with the Judiciary.
It was attended by the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, justices of the superior and lower courts, lawyers and family members of the murdered justices.
Earlier, wreaths were laid at the busts of the murdered justices in front of the Supreme Court building in Accra.
Mrs Hellene Ziwu, the Solicitor-General, who represented the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, laid a wreath on behalf of the government and people of Ghana, the Chief Justice laid one on behalf of the Judiciary and the Judicial Service, the National Secretary of the GBA, Mr Justin Amenuvor, laid one on behalf of the GBA while Mr Banahene Poku Sarkodee, a son of Justice Poku Sarkodee, laid a wreath on behalf of the families of the deceased.
Over-politicisation
Rev. Dr Dogbe said people read political meanings into any comment made by other people, which was not good for national discourse.
He said it should be possible for Ghanaians to share their views on national issues without being tagged as belonging to any political affiliation.
“We have discouraging situations in the country and with the leadership of our communities, we cannot continue to do the old things. Stop the politics,” he admonished.
Attitudinal change
Rev. Dr Dogbe said the three justices were murdered because “they did what was right in the delivery of justice”, and asked Ghanaians to be guided by that principle.
However, he said, corruption had permeated all spheres of the country to the extent that people would have to know “somebody” before they could secure some services.
“You cannot get something done unless you know someone,” he said.
Rev. Dr Dogbe said every Ghanaian had a calling to do the right things always, saying, “We all have to wake up to our responsibility as citizens of Ghana.”
GBA on murdered justices
The President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Nene A.O. Amegatcher, said Justices Fred Poku Sarkodee, Cecilia Koranteng-Addow and Kwadwo Agyei Agyepong had performed their duty without fear or favour, stood for the rule of law and died in the line of duty.
He said their assassins hated what they stood for and murdered them but they could not eliminate what they stood for.
Nene Amegatcher said in response to the call for reconciliation by the National Reconciliation Commission and the biblical injunction that ‘we should forgive those who trespass against us’, the GBA had forgiven the wrongdoers for their cowardly and evil deeds.
“But we still remember these martyrs of the rule of law and will continue to celebrate them. The Bar and Bench acknowledge and proclaim those good qualities and deeds for which they were murdered,” he said.
Threats to the rule of law
Nene Amegatcher said the leadership of the country was yet to come to terms with the fact that everybody — the rich, the poor, the government and the governed — were all subject to the same law and equal before the law.
He said the influence of individuals in the misuse of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), the National Security, the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), among other state institutions to settle scores was obvious even to the most casual observer.
“Such acts must be condemned by all democratically minded and peace-loving Ghanaians. Perhaps the rule of law should be understood as demanding accountability for the exercise of state power by those on who it is conferred,” he said.
Nene Amegatcher, therefore, called for a commitment to building and defending strong institutions of state which would outlast personalities.
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Honour
Nene Amegatcher presented an award package on behalf of the General Council of the GBA to the families of the late Chief Superintendent of Police Jacob Jabuni Yidana for his instrumentality in the investigations into the murder of the three justices.
It included a citation, a proposal to erect his bust, a scholarship package for his last born who is schooling at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, and an unspecified sum of money.