<<Print>>

Major Kojo Boakye-Djan (Rtd), said the greatest lesson of June 4, was that any attempt to overthrow a constitutionally elected government should be resisted. "If the lessons of June 4 are anything to go by, we should resist any illegal overthrow," he said. Major Boakye-Djan, Spokesperson for the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) of 1979, said this when he visited the offices of the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Tema on Tuesday, in commemoration of the 34th Anniversary of the June 4 up-rising. He said it was unfortunate that many people had misconstrued the actual purpose and cause of the June 4 "up-rising". Major Boakye-Djan said: "Since 1972, there had been a series of military regimes in the country. We the young ones decided that multi-party democracy was the way out. June 4 was to create a situation for a democratic society based on justice, equality and accountability." Major Boakye-Djan said the situation in the country at the time made it impossible to avoid the up-rising. He said the up-rising sought to punish the members of the Armed Forces and their collaborators who had seized power illegally over the years and committed offenses that were punishable by constitutional provision. Major Boakye-Djan said punishment meted out to people as a result of the up-rising was done in accordance with the laws of the country. Touching on the loss of human lives and other human rights abuses that accompanied the up-rising, he said it was impossible for an uprising to be staged without casualties. "No uprising is painless. I lost my brother and my career in the process," he said. Major Boakye-Djan, however, said the architects of June 4 could only be judged by the extent to which they succeeded in achieving the aim of the uprising. He said presently he believed no coup could gain support because democratic rule had gained strong roots within the society, adding "no one could stage a coup now and succeed." He said to deepen national stability there was the need to prevent extreme discrepancies in wealth generation within the society. "Let us strive for a wealth for all society. One major cause of the uprising was extreme variations in wealth generation which made some extremely rich and left others with nothing at all." He said for as long as Ghanaians wanted national progress, "we should allow an elected government to continue with its tenure and express ourselves by voting to either retain or get it out at the appropriate time." Major Boakye-Djan advised Ghanaians to be ready for whatever outcome the on-going Supreme Court electoral petition hearing might bring. He said in order to ensure that whoever the final judgement did not favor accepted it calmly, stakeholders such as the media had to work towards reducing tensions within the society as much as possible. On June 4, 1979, Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, who had been arrested for his earlier May 15 unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the Akuffo Regime, was rescued from his cell by military officers upon which the Akuffo Regime was overthrown and the AFRC, headed by Flt. Lt. Rawlings, established. Eight senior army officers, including three former Heads of State, were executed in the process after which the AFRC supervised a national election. The election was won by Dr Hilla Limann of the People's National Party after which the AFRC handed over political power to him in September 1979.