Senya Was Not Executed For Judges' Murder

he Daily Dispatch has for the past three years been carrying out risky but painstaking investigation into an explosive aspect of the never ending saga of the Murder of the Judges.The whole investigation started when we stumbled on a lead that might probably reveal those who authorised the gruesome act.

The information was that L/Cpl. Komla Senya, the 3rd accused in the judges’ murder trial, found guilty and sentenced to death and whose execution was announced by the Government of the Provisional National Defence Council on August 31, 1983 may still be alive. The government announcement said “Lance Corporal Michael Senya who was sentenced to death by the Public Tribunal for the murder of the three High Court judges and the retired army officer, was executed by firing squad at dawn yesterday.

His sentence was confirmed by the PNDC…..” (see front page The People’s Daily Graphic of Thursday, September, 1983.)L/Cpl. Michael Komla Senya was then about 21 years old when he took part in the murder and abduction of the three High Court Judges and a retired Army Major, with four others. All the five were sentenced to death by firing squad on August 15, 1983 by an Accra Public Tribunal, but contrary to what the PNDC told Ghanaians, there are credible indications, 20 years on, that Senya was not executed but was allowed to escape to lead a new life.

The accused persons in case no. 24/83 before the Public Tribunal were Joachim Amartey Kwei (1st accused); L/Cpl. S. K. Amedeka (2nd accused); L/Cpl. Michael Senya (3rd accused); Johnny Dzandu (4th accused) and Tony Tekpor (5th accused). They were charged with conspiracy to murder and murder. Investigations revealed that Tekpor was facing two trials, one for his role in the abortive June 19, 1983 coup attempt led by Cpl. Halidu Gyiwah. He was found guilty in that trial and was sentenced to death and was executed August 13, 1983 two days before the Tribunal gave judgement in the Judges murder trial. Thus, when the Tribunal sentenced him and the four others to death, Tekpor had already been shot by virtue of that death sentence.

Amedeka who had broken jail on June 19, 1983 was sentenced to death in absentia. Thus the three accused present to be executed physically were Amartey Kwei, Senya and Dzandu. Amartey Kwei and Dzandu were executed on August 18, 1983. Senya’s was postponed, ostensibly due to ill-health. (The government announcement saying his sentence had not been confirmed). But our investigations revealed that it was part of a grand scheme meant to mislead the Ghanaian populace to enable Senya to escape thus avoiding his due punishment.

The investigations revealed that of the four soldiers involved in the commission of the crime Amedeka and Senya once lived in the out-house of the Rawlingses at the Independence Avenue sometime between 1979-1982 and were very close to the then first family than Dzandu and Tekpor who were considered outsiders.The investigations revealed that routinely persons meant for execution were picked from their various prison condemned cells and sent to the firing range blindfolded and handcuffed.

A doctor from the Military or Police hospitals was also informed and had to be present at the range to legally certify after the execution that the sentence of death had been carried out and pronounce that those persons were medically dead. In the case of Senya, we can authoritatively say that this procedure was not followed. Senya was put in the bus but not handcuffed and blindfolded as had been done to the others and at the range when disembarking from the bus he slipped away at dawn into the bushes of Ofankor to a rendezvous and has since changed his identity and living comfortably elsewhere.

During our investigations one of the reasons given by a source as to why Senya was spared was because he, Amedeka and a highly placed person in the then Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) government (name withheld) had taken a blood pact that should any one of them (the killer three) betray each other and one die as a result, the remaining two will die. (emphasis ours) This also raises a doubt on the June 19 jailbreak and the circumstances leading to the abortive coup and whether Gyiwah and others were not trapped into what they did just to facilitate the escape of others.

At the other angle, the anger against Tekpor and Dzandu was that instead of escaping as was done by Amedeka after being freed on June 19, they rather joined the mutineers against the PNDC hence there was no reprieve for them. This raises an issue of entrapment and agent provocateur. Was there an issue of agent provocateur in the June 19 uprising? We are still carrying out an investigation into this aspect of June 19 jail break.

To unravel the puzzle of whether Senya was killed or not, one needs to find answers to these questions:(a) Which prison was Senya last placed?(b) When was the last date that Senya was seen in that prison?(c) Who picked him from that prison to the firing range supposedly to be executed?(d) If they are disputing our story they should show us the grave of Senya and his death certificate. (e) Who signed the death certificate?(f) Which Doctor witnessed and certified the execution of the sentence according to the warrant signed by the Head of State?

Our investigations have revealed the person who was the link in this greatest deception and the evidence will be an almost hard evidence that probably the abduction and murder of the Judges had very high backing and the greatest deception was not only for loyalty and ritual bond, as we were being made to believe but rather for complicity. We are however withholding it for security reasons.

We even believe that even this story immediately puts the life of that person in great danger which is one of the reasons we took time to publish our investigations but the public interest necessitated that the result of our investigations was published. Read tomorrow’s Dispatch for the statement of the then 21-year -old L/Cpl Michael Komla Senya.