Retired military officer and politician, Major Boakye Djan (Rtd) has expressed worry over the ethnicity of people being charged with the highest criminal act, high treason.
“The most worrying aspect of the entire charge for me is that the names on the entire list is drawn from one ethnic group in Ghana”, he said.
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According to him it is uncomfortable for the list to have a majority of people allegedly involved in the coup to be from the Volta Region. “That for me is a very uncomfortable thing to happen. If we are not careful, a tag can be given to the entire prosecution and it will be said that it has targeted Voltarians”, he noted.
Major Boakye Djan (Rtd) who is known to have planned the coup that brought Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings to power on 4 June 1979 with other junior officers indicated, “Looking at my coup, there were a wide range of tribes involved and I am surprised at how this particular case is being handled”.
The ex-service man believes the trial and prosecution of this group of people can incite others to join a real coup. “At the moment if you want to organize a coup, you must have a national grievance to work on. The only problem here is that most of the coup plotters are from one tribe and even if the coup is true, Ghanaians will say they are not being prosecuted in the interest of the nation but because of past events”.
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He motioned that the problems in Ghana currently do not warrant a takeover “and if it is not from the Ghana Armed Forces, then it would be brutal and uncomfortable.
In an interview on Happy98.9FM’s Epa Hoa Daben political talk show Major Boakye Djan (Rtd) charged the Attorney General and his office to go back to the drawing board and come up with a proper strategy to prosecute the alleged coup plotters. “Once you go public, the Ghanaian populace will also question you. A coup is a coup and must be handled with extreme caution. I am not happy with how this case it is been handled”, he admitted.
Assistant Commissioner of Police, Benjamin Agordzo and nine others risk death penalty after being charged with the highest criminal act, high treason.
The embattled Assistant Commissioner of Police was arrested last year over his alleged involvement in assisting the suspected leader of coup plotters, Dr Frederick Yao Mac-Palm, through messages he sent on WhatsApp.
Despite being granted a GHC500,000 bail by a High Court presided over by Justice Charles Ekow Baiden, he has been re-arrested by the National Intelligence Bureau after the case was appealed by Attorney General Godfred Dame.
The group include Dr Mac Palm, Donyo Kafui, Bright Alan Debrah, Johannes Zikpi, WO II Esther Saan, Corporal Seidu Abubakar, Corporal Ali Solomon, Colonel Samuel Kojo Gameli and Sylvester Akankpewu faced the Financial Court 2 on Saturday, April 24 and were slapped with new charges including high treason.
