The Constitution Review Commission (CRC) of Ghana has recommended that the indemnity clauses of the 1992 Constitution, which provide coup makers immunity from prosecution must be expunged.
According to the Daily Graphic of Tuesday, the recommendation surfaced in the final report of the CRC after two years of consultation on the amendment of the 1992 Constitution. The 1,000-page report will be handed over to President John Evans Atta Mills on December 12, the state-owned newspaper reported.
According to a source close to the CRC, after the document has been presented to the president, there would be the possibility of a referendum to amend some of the entrenched clauses in the 1992 Constitution.
The indemnity clauses of the 1992 Constitution have shielded coup makers in Ghana including ex-President J. J Rawlings from possible prosecution for acts and omissions committed during their reign.
The call for the removal of the indemnity clauses has sparked several debates over the years with civil society organizations including the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) being in the lead among others.
Section 34 of the transitional provisions of the 1992 Constitution indemnifies all coup makers and their functionaries against any liability for acts and omissions committed during their administration.
The opposition NPP then and other Rawlings critics contended that the former military ruler and his cohorts used the framers of the constitution to �sneak� that portion into the supreme document of the country to perpetually protect them from future prosecutions.
Rawlings shot into the limelight as a junior pilot officer who inspired a mutiny under the aegis of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) in 1979 and made a return through a revolution with the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) between 1981 and 1993 before he made way for the 1992 Constitution.
It is, however, unclear whether the CRC�s recommendation takes retrospective effect or a move to deter future coupists.
Source: Citifmonline. com
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