Nana Akomea
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has described last Tuesday’s ruling in the protracted Dagbon crisis as a victory for the rule of law.
The party added, “The judgment should not be a victory for, or a defeat of any political party.”
In a reaction to the ruling, the NPP’s Communications Director, Nana Akomeah noted in a statement that while it suited the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to twist the acquittal of suspects in 2003 to imply that the NPP was not keen on seeking justice in the matter of the Overlord’s death, the NDC had found itself in the situation the NPP was in at the time, from the recent ruling.
The NDC, the statement said, ridiculed the NPP over the Wuaku Commission, put out a video evidence on the murder of the Overlord and even pledged in their 2008 manifesto to “set up a new and truly non-partisan, professionally competent and independent Presidential Commission to reopen investigations into the murder of Ya Na Yakubu Andani II”.
By the foregone, the statement indicated, the NDC whipped up a huge expectation that they had the key to unraveling the circumstances that led to and persons behind the Ya Na’s death.
In pursuance of their agenda, the NPP explained, the NDC rounded up 100 suspects including aged persons for screening, many kilometers away from their homes. After screening them, the number was reduced to 15 persons who, by the ruling, were acquitted and discharged.
The NPP posed a rhetorical question, “Can the public say the NDC is also not keen on justice in the matter of Ya Na’s death?”
The needless politicisation of the issue, the party noted, had brought the Dagbon crisis to the present level, recalling the ruling, one of whose segments pointed out that “the prosecution failed to prove a prima facie case but that even the evidence was inconsistent, fabricated and discredited”.
The largest opposition party called on the government not to be goaded by political imperatives and expediency in the matter but to allow the security agencies to discharge their duties professionally “in a manner that may unearth durable and credible evidence which alone can form fair basis for convictions.”
Continuing, the statement asked that “Andanis and Abudus find new strength in their common ancestry and proud heritage, to rise above the current differences, to forge for themselves a resolution of the current crisis that would set Dagbon on the way to peace and development.”
By A.R. Gomda
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