Veteran journalist, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako,has accused Former President Jerry John Rawlings of double standards in his recent rants over the Multimedia’s ‘Who Killed The Judges?’ documentary.

According to the New Crusading Guide Editor-in-Chief, Former President Rawlings kept mute after the report by the Special Investigation Board (SIB) that probed the 1982 murder of the three high court judges and a retired army officer under the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) regime, directly implicated the former military leader in its report.

Mr Baako’s reaction comes after Mr Rawlings accused the Multimedia group of attempting to  “re-hash” and “re-cook” history through the documentary, to make him and other innocent people look guilty as far as the murder of three court judges and the army major is concerned.

He added that the perpetrators of that crime some 36 years ago, were justly punished unlike the murderers of Dagbon Overlord Ya Na Yakubu Andani, who, according to him, are still walking free.

Responding to Mr Rawlings’ reaction, Mr Baako told Multi TV’s news analysis programme News File on Saturday, 13 October that: “I would’ve wished he had kept quiet”.

“If I were his adviser”, Mr Baako continued, “I would told him that: ‘Sir, silence is golden relative to this incident, this documentary’”.

Where was Mr Rawlings when the NRC [National Reconciliation Commission] pronounced its verdict? Look, NRC was not a documentary. It was something that was conducted under an Act of parliament, of course it took into consideration all this indemnity, immunity and all those things, so, took away criminal jurisdiction from the NRC agenda and left it on a truth-telling, reconciliation, fact-finding type of [exercise] meant to heal our souls as it were. And I’m sorry I do this but this is a public document, it’s a public record, so I’m not sure anybody can tell me I’m accusing anybody and , indeed, it’s not my view, I’m quoting.

“This is from page 139 of the Volume One, executive summary of the NRC report, which is dated 12 October 2004. It says:

“The SIB found Captain Tsikata to be a co-conspirator in the abduction and cold-blooded murder of the judges and the retired army officer. But like Amartey Kwei, Captain Tsikata could not, by himself, have carried out the deed because he was not even a member of the PNDC. It needed the authority of someone higher up and that person was Flt. Lt. Rawlings, who, according to evidence before the Commission, had, months before succeeding in overthrowing the Limann administration, threatened to punish the judges, who had freed so-called AFRC convicts. Without his express orders or tacit approval, the Operation Pass, would not have been issued to Amedeka and his gang. It was the public reaction to the abduction that led to the cabal to beat a retreat and try to undo what had already been done. The search for a scapegoat begun and a misguided Amartey Kwei was found to fill the role, like the man who rode on the back of a Tiger, it did not know how to get off and ended up in its mouth”.

“This is SIB. Look, a serious verdict by a Commission of that nature, you were former president, Chairman of the PNDC, all those things, what was his reaction to such an explosive verdict? He’s worried about a documentary by a journalist or a radio station? That’s what he’s worried about? So, he begins to make noise all over the place when this document stays forever and ever. So, I expected that this one rather [SIB report], would have elicited a more serious reaction from him, not the noise … why did he let this [SIB Report] go, apart from the noises that he made? In terms of the real value, how many years down the line … 14 years down the line? You are now coming to talk about fundamental distinction between justice for four people and injustice for forty people. That’s not the resolution for you who were Chairman of that regime then and became president subsequently.

“You see, he missed a great opportunity, people have forgotten. He appeared before the NRC, he actually 13 times was invited to come and respond to allegations people were making about him, and there was a procedure to follow: they bring you what the people are saying, you fill in a certain statement, then you also make your statement and all goes to the Commission because they may have to call others and then you come; 13 times he declined, or he refused or he failed, he rather was arguing with them left-right-centre. So, eventually the NRC had to issue a subpoena to him that required that he produce two records: One, the Amartey Kwei tape, which is part of what we just read, the second one was the video clip of [the extrajudicial execution of Gyiwaa, Sarkodie Addo, the soldier, the former AFRC member, and the rest] at the Airforce Station after they themselves had decided that all these people are guilty, shoot them. And they shot them. And there’s a video. He was asked to produce these two because he was so uncooperative unlike Captain Tsikata, who went through the procedures, did his statement and appeared and did his case. Mr Rawlings, apparently did not have the requisite capacity to appear before an organised platform and to deal with issues face-to-face. He didn’t have the capacity. If it were a rally, or a market place or a chop bar, he would have made himself immediately available to come and stand there and do his western cowboysm things.

“Amedeka was sentenced to death in absentia, Mr Rawlings was Chairman, became president, I never heard him ask Interpol to look for Amedeka. After last week’s programme, I got a hint [about] where Amedeka is from a very reliable source. He’s alive and he’s doing very well. In a North American country”, Mr Baako reveled.