A former Chief Inspector of Police, Alhaji Mohammad Alidu has called on President John Agyekum Kufuor to order the arrest and prosecution of former President Jerry John Rawlings for ?compounding crime? under the Criminal Code of 1960.
The ex-president should also be prosecuted for concealment of crime under the PNDC Law 185, which he promulgated himself, he said in an open letter to the president.
Section 234, Act 29 of the 1960 Criminal Code says that whosoever knows of a crime committed and fails to report to the police is an accomplice.
Alhaji Alidu said: ?it is a serious matter if a former president of this country who ruled for nearly twenty years knew about murders – be they in the current government or not – but failed to report them or even take any action in that direction?.
Former President Rawlings told some National Democratic Congress (NDC) supporters at the last June 4 celebration that he knew the names of some 15 senior officials in the Kufuor government who masterminded the serial murder of the 34 women, which started in 1994.
He repeated it at Techiman in the Brong-Ahafo region and said he did not make the alleged culprits to face the law because he felt Ghanaians would misconstrue it as persecuting political opponents.
Rawlings told a team of police officers from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) that he would mention the names of the officials only under the application of chemical interrogations and that he did not have confidence in the state?s security apparatus.
The former police officer sent copies of his letter to the vice president, the chairman of the Council of State, the minister of Defence, the minister of the Interior and the minister of Justice and Attorney General.
Others were the chief of Defence Staff, the inspector general of Police and the director of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI).
Alidu who recently appeared before the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) for alleged wrongful dismissal by the police administration, stated that ?murder is a capital offence which attracts capital punishment? and that the former president should not be allowed to go unpunished if he refuses to mention the names of the murderers.
?We as Ghanaians should remember that the late General Afrifa was indemnified by the 1969 Constitution, yet Rawlings executed him,? he stated.
Source: GhanaWeb
