NPP calls for Presidential Commission to investigate Ya-na's murder

Accra, April 26, GNA - The Minority in Parliament on Monday called on the government to set up a Presidential Commission to investigate the killers of the late Ya-Na Yakubu Andani as promised in the manifesto of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

At a press conference in Accra the New Patriotic Party (NPP) said: "Over the past 15 months of the Atta Mills led NDC Administration no professionally competent independent commission have been appointed. "What was being witnessed has been the desperate incessant outburst and pressure from the former President Jerry John Rawlings on President Atta Mills administration to arrest and prosecute the alleged murders of the Ya-Na.

Mr Ambrose Dery, Deputy Minority Leader who addressed the conference said the NPP believe in the rule of law and any person in breach of any statute should be dealt with.

"The law has clear rules and regulations regarding investigation of criminal offences, manner of arrest, access to counsel, and respect for human right of all suspects," he stressed.

He claimed that the recent arrest of 41 suspected killers of Ya-Na in Yendi from the Abudu gate on April 9 was done without arrest warrant. Mr Dery said seven out of the 41 suspects were thrown into the cells of the police and the Bureau of National Investigation.

He alleged that on April 13, a similar dawn raid at Gushegu was carried out, leading to the arrest of 22 known NPP supporters, who had a clash with NDC supporters during the 2008 electioneering campaign and five of them were brought to Accra to suffer the same fate.

He said former President Jerry John Rawlings had for a long claimed to have the video recordings of the events, which led to the assassination of the Ya-na though he failed to appear before the Wuako Commission. The NPP, he said believed that former President Rawlings would not fail to appear before a Presidential Commission, which the NDC promised.