June 4 should not be celebrated in Ghana – Effah Dartey

Private legal practitioner and former Member of Parliament, retired Captain Nkrabea Effah Dartey has described the removal and seizure of government and its powers on June 4, 1979 by the late Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings as the bloodiest and ghastliest coup d’états in Ghana.

He has said that June 4, 1979 is a day and a memory he always wishes to completely blank out in his life due to the killings and the blood of innocent people who were sacrificed during that coup.

Capt. (rtd) Nkrabeah Dartey, speaking in an interview on the Yesempa show on Onua FM on Friday, June 4, maintained that the event on that day will remain a terrible memory that Ghanaians who are above 50 years of age and witnessed what happened would want to quickly forget.

He condemned the conduct of the military during that revolution where young soldiers used guns to attack the command structure and the fact that innocent citizens were gloomily brutalized.

The former Deputy Interior Minister, however, recounted the torment meted out to the citizenry by the military and indicated that it was a crime to be an officer in Ghana Army during that period.

“4th June is the bloodiest coup in the history of Ghana where young soldiers who have not been in the military even for 5 years used guns to attack the command structure.

But Mr Oppong said Dr Ayine’s comments even attracted the displeasure of Supreme Court justice Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, who was a panel on the programme.

The private legal practitioner insisted that it is the right of those who feel aggrieved by the comments to take Dr Ayine on.

There has been growing criticism of the action by the Chief Justice with some claiming justices are beginning to assume a position where they don’t want to be criticised.

“It is as if judges now don’t like to be criticised [but] that has not been the case at all because all of us critiqued the judgement.”