The minority National Democratic Congress says it will not be commemorating the 22nd anniversary celebrations of the May 15 Coup attempt led by the then Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings.
Fl. Lt. Rawlings, then a young airforce pilot, was catapulted into public light when he led junior officers and men of the Ghana Armed Forces against the Supreme Military Council government headed by the late General Fred Akuffo. The coup attempt was foiled but Flight Lieutenant Rawlings became a hero when he defended himself at his court martial with the call, "Let My Men Go: I Am Responsible."
In an interview with the Network Herald, a former Presidential Staffer in charge of Revolutionary Cadres the NDC administration, Nii Adjei Boye Sekan, said the Party decided not to celebrate the occasion in light of last week’s Accra Sports Stadium tragedy in which about 126 Ghanaians lost their lives.
He added that although the NDC is now a minority party, it has entered into a covenant with a great majority of Ghanaians who still believe in the ideals and principles of the May 15 insurrection as well as the June 4 and 31st December revolutions. He explained that it therefore behooves on the leaders of the Party to revisit the issues that led to uprising annually for the purposes of renewal and continuity.
He added that the party will therefore add the agenda for May 15 to the 22nd anniversary celebrations of June 4, the revolution that saw Flt. Lt. Rawlings as the 5th Head of State of Ghana.
The General Secretary of the Party, Mr. Huudu Yahaya, called on the Party Supporters to spend the day in prayerful meditation for the victims of the stadium disaster and also entreat God to guide the ruling NPP government along the path of righteous leadership and away from the politics of vengeance and vendetta.
