Corporal Matthew Adabuga, one of the major architects of the 31st December Revolution who recently testified before the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), has indicated his willingness to come back to the Commission as soon as he was invited to do so. Speaking to Daily Guide on Saturday from his base in Norway, Adabuga related that he wants to make it known to all Ghanaians that he stands by every word he had spoken during his appearance before the National Reconciliation Commission last year.
?I stand by my story and everything that I had told the commission and I want to meet them ?fiilifiili? anytime anywhere, especially the former chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) Flight-Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings (Rtd).?
Reacting to the evidence given by Captain Kojo Tsikata (Rtd) to the NRC on Tuesday February 10, 2004, Adabuga emphasised that there are so many more questions concerning the murder of the Judges which demands many more answers from Kojo Tsikata and Rawlings.
In his testimony before the Commission, Cpl Adabuga accused former President J.J. Rawlings and Capt Kojo Tsikata of having ordered the abduction and murder of the three high court judges and the retired army officer in June 1982.
The murdered judges are Justice Cecilia Koranteng-Addow, Justice Fred Poku Sarkodee, the Judge Advocate who presided over the military Tribunal that sentenced Tsikata and others to death in 1976, for conspiracy to overthrow the government of Gen. Acheampong, Justice George Adjei Adjepong and Major Sam Acquah, the retired army officer, a former Director of Personnel at GIHOC.
Cpl Adabuga, who lost his job as a Red Cross officer in Norway after staying too long in Ghana to testify before the NRC, described Rawlings and Tsikata as conspirators in the plot to abduct and murder the High Court Judges asking ?even in those heady days, he did not see how Lance Corporal Samuel Kweku Amedeka and others would have taken orders from a civilian like Joachim Amartey Kwei, without any reference to Rawlings or Tsikata.
?Those soldiers were not fools. They were trained and could only have been working under superior orders.?
He further described the two (Rawlings and Tsikata) as inveterate liars, con-men who would do anything to cover-up their sordid past without being humble enough to admit responsibilities for the numerous pain, anguish and bloodshed they unleashed on the nation.
Asked whether he, himself was also not culpable for the bloodshed unleashed on the nation, Cpl Adabuga conceded that although he inflicted pain and unnecessary anguish on some people particularly his personal involvement in the killing of an innocent person at La, in Accra, Rawlings and Tsikata, have not admitted responsibility for any of the series of wanton murders that characterised the 11 year rule of the PNDC.
According to Adabuga, ?assuming Amedeka and his gang did not need curfew pass to kill Tsikata?s uncle and Yeye Boy in the Volta Region, how come they needed a curfew pass to kidnap and kill the judges? How come they decided in this case to wear northern smock (N.T. Smocks).?
Continuing, Adabuga explained that according to their procedures in those days, the soldiers could only have obtained the curfew pass from the PNDC Operations Room which was under Major Wallace Gbedemah. ?What I know is that everyday, Gbedemah would brief Tsikata and Rawlings about his daily operations, and this included the issuance of passes?, so I don?t see how Amedeka would have gotten those curfew passes without the authorities knowing, since you had to state specific reasons for needing it.?, Adabuga further stated.
?What is strange is that the very vehicle, a new Datsun 120Y, which was used by Amartei Kwei to go round the judges homes before they were kidnapped that day, was declared missing the next day and found burnt a few days later? alleged Adabuga.
?What I am saying is that dead men don?t talk, Amartei Kwei and RSM Harrison Tetteh (Rawlings? aide-de-camp) would by now be turning in their graves. We were used and dumped, and so did they use those boys and dumped them?, he charged., stressing that ?Amartei Kwei could not have taken such a major decision of selecting such high profile persons alone all by himself?.
Adabuga startled the entire nation last year when he told the commission that when the news of the murder of the Judges was broken to Rawlings at the PNDC Secretariat, he opened his fridge, took a champagne and popped it.
In his evidence before the NRC last week, Capt Kojo Tikata told the NRC that the evidence of Adabuga, Chief Superintendent Jacob Jebuni Yidana and Chris Asher concerning him (Tsikata) were a pack of lies.
He went on to describe Yidana as a coup-plotter who conspired with the members of the Special Investigations Board (SIB), to destroy his image and to bring the government of the PNDC down.
Tsikata said he was amazed that the commission would accept evidence from a man like Chris Asher, whom he described as ?an international con-man.?
