Accra, Feb 4, GNA - Mr Kwabena Agyei Bramdang Agyepong, Press Secretary to President J. A. Kufuor on Wednesday testified before the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), on the murder of his father, Mr Justice K. Agyei Agyepong, and prayed that the Commission should recommend the re-opening of investigations into the murder to establish the truth in that matter.
He said the truth should be established to serve as a fitting memorial for those who were murdered.
Mr Agyepong, who was accompanied by his mother, Mrs Comfort Agyepong to the witness box, also queried why Major Wallace Gbedemah, then in charge of the operational office that issued the permit for the murder operation, was never mentioned in the report of the Special Investigation Board (SIB) on the death of the four persons.
Witness said there were a number of people who still had information about the abduction, and murder of his father, then a High Court Judge, killed along with two other High Court Judges and a retired Army Major in 1982.
The High Court Judges murdered in that gruesome act were Mrs Cecilia Koranteng-Addo, Mr S.P Sarkodie and Major Sam Acquah (Rtd) was the Military Officer.
Mr Allotei Mingle, Head of the Legal Affairs of the Commission, led Mr Agyepong in his evidence-in-chief.
Mr Agyepong stated he and the family never wished any revenge on anyone, who is found to be behind the murders, but just to establish the truth of the matter and put it to rest once and for all.
He said his father, who was at that time having his dinner, was invited to go and see Mrs Justice Koranteng Addo, who was living near their bungalow and was reported to be very sick. Witness said his father never returned home, until the family received the shocking news of his death. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) he said, also later announced that the four had been found dead and their bodies riddled with bullets.
The Witness said he went then to the Office of the then Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) Secretary for the Interior, Mr Johnny Hansen, to find out about what happened to the father, but Mr Hansen went out through the back door when he had confrontation with him.
Mr Agyepong said after reading the Special Investigations Board report 15 years later, he found aspects of the report strange, but kept quiet. He recalled hearing Mr Justice Azu Crabbe, on a television programme in the 1990's that there were some people having the blood of the four murdered personalities on their heads.
Mr Agyepong said, that statement, added to another statement by Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings, on January 7 1999, that even people who were close to "them", were swiftly dealt with, when they erred. Witness said this prompted him to organise a press conference in reaction to those statements.
Mr Agyepong said Flt Lt Rawlings had prior knowledge of the identity of two of the murder squad, Amedeka and Senya before making a public announcement of an institution of investigation into the murder on July 4 1982.
He alleged that Amedeka and Senya, had told the Flt Lt Rawlings then Chairman of the PNDC the murders and where the bodies were, two days before he (Flt Lt Rawlings) made a public announcement, on July 4 1982, of an institution of investigation into the murder of the judges and told the nation that the murder was committed by "enemies of the revolution".
Witness questioned the basis of a statement he attributed to the former Head of State, that the murder was done by enemies of the revolution when he had knowledge of the people who killed the judges. " Why did he choose to mislead the country with that broadcast of July 4 1982? I'm very sad that he is not here today." Mr Agyepong said.
Mr Agyepong said after the press conference, he had a call from Mr Ben Ephson, Editor of the Daily Dispatch newspaper, that Baafour Assasie Gyimah, then Ghana's Ambassador to Burkina Faso, had said that his (Mr Agyepong's) press statements contained half truths and untruths and that he was looking for an opportunity to make clarifications when he had an opportunity to come back home.
Mr Agyepong said he visited Baafour Assasie Gyimah in the company of Mr Kwesi Pratt Junior. Baafour Assasie Gyimah was the National Security Co-ordinator in 1982.
Baafour Assasie said Mr Agyepong had said that one Mr Quarshie had radioed Flt Lt Rawlings on a failed recording of the words spoken at the last rites of Mr Amartey Kwei.
He said Mr Kwashie was not present, and never radioed Flt Lt Rawlings.
Amartey Kwei was one of the people tried and executed for the murder of the three High Court Judges and the retired Army Major. Baafour Assasie Gyimah, who was at the Commission to cross-examine Mr Agyepong said he radioed Chairman Rawlings himself from the Ussher Fort Prisons that a tape he had given him the previous evening had failed to record the last words of Mr Amartey Kwei.
He said the late Father Damoah had convinced him to accompany him to the Ussher Fort Prison, to conduct the last rites for Amartey Kwei before execution.
He said Amartey Kwei said on that day that some people advised him to implicate Capt Kojo Tsikata, then National Security Advisor during the trial, but he did not mention those who advised him, after a brief survey of the hall.
Baafour Assasie Gyimah also dissociated himself from the former first family on the murder, and said the Chairman of the PNDC came over to record what Amartey Kwei had to say before he was finally executed off the Nsawam Road.
He said that Amartey Kwei did not die instantly, but was rained with bullets before dying adding that he was apologising to Captain Tsikata before he finally died.
Mr Agyepong said he was traumatised by the murders. He did not agree that it was obscene and against his religion and fundamental human rights to be present to record the last encounter of Amartey Kwei with the Catholic Priest, Father Damoah.
