Towards A Campaign Against The Death Penalty:
Who deserves to be killed and by whom in Ghana?
Kwasi Owusu
The recent spate of executions in Ghana has raised the ire of our correspondent, KWASI OWUSU, who lives in London He argues that Ghanaians should make known their displeasure against the disregard for the sanctity of human life being displayed by the PNDC. When it comes to economic crimes, he is convinced that the leaders are equally guilty.The Secretary-General of Amnesty International, Mr Thomas Hammarberg, said emphatically that "In some countries, they don't imprison their dissidents any more, they just kill them" (The Guardian, May 31, 1985). And this is a testimony of what is happening in Accra, Ghana. They just kill and kill them be they dissidents or not, they just kill them like stray dogs as if they have the right over life. Such is the case history of a regime that has violated the sacred tradition of the people of Ghana for the sanctity of life.
And come to think of it, this ruling Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) led by Flt Lt Jerry Rawlings has the support of Mr Kenneth Dadzie, former UN Deputy Secretary-General, now the military regime's High Commissioner in London with ministerial responsibilities. Mr Kenneth Dadzie can stomach this barbarism so far as his post positions him well for the UN highest post which continues to be his life ambition.
Six people are waiting on death-roll and fresh lists are being prepared daily. Seventeen have been executed so far within three weeks. And the world community is silent over this flagrant violation of human life. But how can such barbarism stir the conscience of the world when international personalities like Dr Robert Gardiner (former Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa), Chief Justice F. K. Apaloo and Dr Evans-Anfom (former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Science and Technology) continue to legitimise the regime by serving with it!
The question agitating the minds of human rights groups is why there is this visible silence in Ghana amongst the once vociferous professional associations especially the Bar Association. Has fear gripped the nation to such a degree that it has paralysed the conscience of the elite who possess the means and know-how to mount a campaign against the death penalty?
Or, is it that they are plotting for their own turn to exact the same brutal measures on those leaders who have gone on record as saying that they are prepared to face the firing squad should they fail Ghana? Such a conspiracy of silence is a moral haemorrhage which can kill the spirituality of the nation if those who by their outcry can arouse the international community to the barbarism of the Rawlings junta continue to hold their tongues.
Now, let us address ourselves to the question of who has the moral right to take away life in Ghana for economic ills against the state. The one person who deserves to drink his own poison for corruption and acts of economic sabotage is Mr Kwamina Ahwoi, the PNDC Co-ordinator of Investigations, Revenue Commissioners and Tribunals. To the workers of the Bibiani Industrial Complex, Kwamina Ahwoi is the most powerful agent of graft and extortion (kalabule) in Ghana.
Here, the case involves the sum of $22,000 involving Mr Ahwoi's childhood friend, Major (rtd) Yaw Larsen. Following numerous resolutions and industrial actions by workers of the complex led by the then Chief Accountant, Mr Appiah-Ofori, against foreign exchange racketeering and under-invoicing at the complex, the Castle finally yielded and sacked the then Managing Director, Mr Quarshie.
Against the opposition of the workers, Kwamina Ahwoi caused the appointment of Major Yaw Larsen as the new Managing Director. The Chief Accountant was sacked for his incessant campaign for financial probity in the management of state enterprises. Kwamina Ahwoi and Mrs. Aanaa Enin, a member of the PNDC, are alleged to have accused Appiah- Ofori of carrying on like he was Jesus Christ.
In less than a year in office, Major Larsen managed to stack away $22,000 in a foreign account in Poland with the Bank Hanlowy in Warsaw. The amount represented the total discount earned by the Bibiani Complex through its Polish transactions (Ghanaian Times, Sept 26, 1984). At the Commission of Enquiry Maj Larsen claimed that he did not know how this amount came to be deposited in his account nor who paid it in! Obviously the PNDC appointed Commission believed him, since he is still alive; and to think that people have been executed in Ghana for less!
It took another outcry of the workers to expose the reckless mismanagement of Major Larsen. Major Larsen could only be interdicted. And like other cases of graft and kick-backs amongst PNDC officials of state, the public has heard nothing of Major Larsen's case since, though, other citizens, driven by the acute economic conditions, who have dared to follow the footsteps and habits of their leaders are killed like dogs.
At least, those executed for economic crimes stole money in the local currency which is not convertible. At least, the stolen money would be in circulation in Ghana. And if one is to judge by the example of our present leaders, then they should not execute anybody for economic crimes or they themselves should go to the stakes first. Favoured PNDC officials are stacked with foreign exchange whenever they travel abroad. Some return home and trade with the unused foreign exchange on the black market.
In the case of Major Larsen it can therefore be deduced that he defrauded the "people of Ghana" in the sum of C4,400,000 at the parallel rate of exchange. Why is Kwamina Ahwoi's bosom friend not being made to face the firing squad? What is quite clear in Ghana now is that economic crimes committed against "the people" receive the sentence called "interdiction" which is later followed by the sack or shift in responsibilities. But crimes against the "state" which has become the private property of the ruling elite attracts the death penalty.
How can one explain, what at best can be described as, the alleged minor case of Mr Ato Ahwoi, the former Secretary of Trade, whose economic licentiousness against "the people" merits mention? It is alleged that Mr Ato Ahwoi, brother of the Co-ordinator of Investigations, Revenue Commissioners and Tribunals, used his position to proposition a woman trader when the poor woman's goods were confiscated by Ato Ahwoi's ministry. Afterwards, he gave order for the goods to be released to her.
To the dismay of the woman, over a third of the goods were gone when she went to take delivery of them. When she inquired, she was informed that it was Ato Ahwoi who had caused their distribution as Christmas boxes to other PNDC officials of state. This infuriated the woman so much that she revealed her ordeal to her husband who through threats of public exposure managed to lay the incident in front of the Chairman of the PNDC at the Castle. Ato Ahwoi was punished with a lower job as Secretary of State at the PNDC Secretariat. This is Rawlings' Ghana!
And lest we forget, Major Larsen is now the Chairman of the Security and International Matches Committee of the Ghana Football Association. On May 25, this year, Major Larsen's committee held a meeting at the Accra Sports Stadium to discuss the case of an alleged syndicate that was responsible for the printing and sale of forged tickets during the Black Stars- Ivory Coast World Cup second leg tie at the Kumasi Sports Stadium. (May be it takes a thief to catch a thief). And it can happen in Ghana where corruption starts from Kotoka International Airport ending at the Castle, the seat of the junta ruling the people with "revolutionary" decrees.
The state machinery is therefore the alpha and omega of economic sabotage which subverts the just and human economic and political aspirations of the mass of the population. The state has become an effective instrument sponging the people of their wealth in the name of the PNDC, the bureaucracy, the armed forces and police, the judiciary and tribunals and the chiefs. The state has become the all powerful vehicle for economic aggrandisement and social mobility. Whoever controls the state at a given time constitutes the new elite who create a class of nouveau riche at the expense of the developmental expectations of the people.
In another incident in Sunyani, Brong-Ahafo, a manager of the Social Security Bank who hoarded cutlasses and biscuits intended for the bank's customers and was sentenced by the Regional Public Tribunal, to a fine of C130,000 has since been "promoted" with responsibility for overseeing the implementation of the Akuaffo Cheque System in Ashanti and Bong- Ahafo regions! And guess who is the co-ordinator of the Akuaffo Cheque System? Mr Kwasi Ahwoi, the youngest of the three Ahwoi brothers!! (People's Daily Graphic, May 29, 1985, p.7).
In October, 1984, in a nationwide broadcast, the Secretary for the Interior, Mr Kofi Djin, announced that, "With immediate effect all major forms of economic crimes in the country will be tried by the public tribunal and those found guilty of such offences will be made to face the maximum penalty."
While Kofi Djin went on, those at the PNDC Operations Room at the Gondar Barracks were said to be in a state of great consternation as they possess mountains of evidence implicating the "honourable minister" of defrauding large sums of money from unsuspecting Taiwanese business- men. The Secretary for Interior is also alleged to have collaborated with Ato Ahwoi, then Secretary for Trade, to grant resident permits and import licences to Indian and Lebanese migrants. These new resident foreign businessmen are so emboldened by their contacts at high places that they flagrantly import canned beer from South Africa and sell openly in their newly opened super-markets! They provide secret hide-outs of convenience to officials of state and they stock these officials well with liquor and cigarettes.
In Ghana, now, where the code of ministerial conduct is "don't be caught", there is a plague called economic deprivation which has corrupted the very fibre of the society to such an extent that it is only the super-criminal (shogun) who would dare to cast the first stone. And the of: first stones of bullets are being cast from the Castle sanctioned by the Latter-Day Junior Jesus or J.J. who is led in prayers at the Castle by Church leaders in Ghana.
The state has become the all powerful vehicle for economic aggrandisement and social mobility. Whoever controls the state at a given time, constitutes the new elite who create a class of nouveau riche at the expense of the developmental expectations of the people.
The question is why are all these other leaders of the flock failing in their ecclesiastical duty to speak out against this capital punishment crusade being waged by the military junta? Jesus spoke out and was crucified on the cross after the fashion of the day. Jesus never led bloodthirsty leaders in prayers. Can we now hear the voices of these leaders who tell their congregations about human rights violations in the Pope's homeland of Poland? When is the pastoral letter coming out? Can these religious leaders boycott the Castle and speak out from the pulpit like Bishop Desmond Tutu is doing in South Africa?
Unless Ghanaians stand up against these senseless executions the world community would think that Ghanaians do favour these killings. There is therefore the urgent need for a campaign to be mounted against capital punishment in Ghana. Such a campaign can be organised in various phases. In the first phase, this is what every Ghanaian living abroad can do:
1. Buy 4 postcards (preferably plain) and write boldly on each one of them the following
AS A GHANAIAN CITIZEN OF A UNITING WORLD, I AM DESPERATELY APPEALING TO YOU TO USE YOUR GOOD OFFICES TO IMPRESS UPON THE MILITARY LEADER OF GHANA, FLT LT JERRY RAWLINGS, TO PUT A STOP TO EXECUTIONS WHICH HAVE CHARACTERISED HIS REGIME. IN THE LAST MONTH OR SO, HE HAS CAUSED THE EXECUTION OF SEVENTEEN PEOPLE BY FIRING SQUAD.
2. Sign only your name and mail these postcards directly to the attention
a. Mr Javier Perez de Cuellar, Secretary-General, UNO, New York, New York, USA.
b. Mr Tip O'Neill, House Speaker, US Congress, Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.
c. The Editor, The Economist, 25 St James's Street, London SW1A 1HG.
d. Campaign Against Capital Punishment in Ghana, c/o Talking Drums, 68 Mansfield Road, London NW3 2HU.
3. Pick up your phone or address book and communicate this campaign to at least 10 Ghanaians and ask them to respond likewise.
By such direct-mail campaign enough international pressure would be brought to bear on Chairman Rawlings to abandon his executions because as one cynic remarked, "Under these excruciating economic conditions, if the Pope were to be a Ghanaian and was sent with a C1,000 he would pocket it". You may say it again, for the only pride that Ghanaians have left is their sense of humour anchored by their smile which holds no bile against humanity. So much for the humour but the question facing us all now is who deserves to be killed and by whom in Ghana?
