Reconcilation Commission, Rawlings Won't Have Cause to Fear

The Attorney-General (A-G) and Minister of Justice, Nana Akufo-Addo, has given the assurance that ex-President Rawlings' condition in the make-up of the reconciliation commission will be easily met and therefore he will not have any grounds to refuse to appear before it if he is summoned.

Dropping this hint in an interview with Chronicle yesterday, Nana noted that if indeed the former president decided not to appear for other reasons, then the commission, which like other fact-finding bodies armed with the power of subpoena, will act accordingly.

"The commission has the powers to compel people to appear and if they don't there are other powers that the commission has, like the power to subpoena the commission will act accordingly if the ex-president refuses to appear," he underscored.

The former President, according to Nana Akufo-Addo, is not the one to decide the calibre of people who should be constituted in the commission, saying that; that power is solely arrogated to the President of the Republic.

He rebuffed the claims of an absence of quorum by the minority in the passage of the Reconciliation Act saying no official protest has been lodged in the floor of the House.

"We have been back now for more than one week; no formal protest has been lodged in the parliament about the impropriety of the passage,' he pointed out.

He noted that the requisite statutory majority that the rules required were met in all the proceedings of the reconciliation commission bill.

According to Nana Akufo-Addo anyone who thinks that Parliament had acted illegally can take the matter to court.

He however made it emphatic that the majority will contest the matter to its logical conclusion.

"Everybody has the right in Ghana to go to court to complain about whatever he likes .If the matter goes to court it will be met, we will deal with it in court," he stressed.

In a tacit corroboration of Statesman's story on Monday on the composition of the commission, the A-G hinted that professionals such as retired army officers, trades union leaders, legal practitioners, religious leaders among others would constitute the commission.