State must protect the rights of all - Tsatsu

Accra, June 19, GNA - Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, a former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), has said there was the need for the state to protect the rights of all individuals.

He said the Free Tsatsu Campaign (FTC) should not be about him alone but to fight for the rights of all people who suffer injustice. Mr Tsikata was speaking at a function to commemorate the first anniversary of the FTC as well as outlining the campaign's vision and future activities in Accra.

The FTC was formed by a group of people on the June 18, 2008 to protest against the unjust incarceration of Mr Tsikata by an Accra Fast Track High Court presided over by Mrs Justice Henrietta Abban. The group condemned the ruling and demanded justice and fair play not only for Mr Tsikata but also for all Ghanaians.

Mr Tsikata also thanked Ghanaians who came from all walks of life for their support and prayers during his incarceration and especially Mr Kwesi Pratt, the Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper for his immerse contribution to the FTC.

"Our country will be well served if we should have two or more of his type in the system," he said.

Mr Tsikata said the future of the country should not only be about people seeking for power but social justice. He pledged to work to ensure that people do not go through the same the situation that he went through and that if any person were treated unjustly he would be among the first to fight against it. "What was wrong against Tsatsu Tsikata is wrong against anybody today," he said.

Mr Tony Lithur, a member of the FTC, said the flagrant abuse of power by the judiciary in the incarceration of Mr Tsikata was a wake up call for Ghanaians that the people cannot sit back and leave all the institutions of state to those that they appoint. He said the people must constantly hold the institutions of states such as the judiciary accountable and criticize them because they are not above criticism.

Mr Lithur also urged the current government not to repeat the mistakes of the past or cook up charges against their opponents. Mr Pratt said justice for all should transcend all political, social and economic divide in the country.

He said for the group to be relevant in the fight against all forms of social injustice in the country, its members must be consistent in their principles.

Mr Pratt chastised members of the former NPP administration who are complaining of harassment to go back and check their own record of human rights abuses when they were in office.