Samuel Azu Crabbe - Special Investigation Board

Special Investigation Board

During the era of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) of Jerry Rawlings, three judges and an army officer were abducted from their homes on 30 June 1982. Their bodies were found on 3 July 1982 at the Bundase Military Range, 50 kilometers from Accra. They had been murdered. All four had adjudicated on cases in which they had ordered the release of persons who had been sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, during the rule of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) which had also been led by Jerry Rawlings in 1979. Following intense pressure on the PNDC government, a Special Investigation Board (SIB) was formed to investigate the murders. Samuel Azu Crabbe was appointed the Chairman of the SIB. Their work led to the recommendation that 10 persons be prosecuted. Two of them, Joachim Amartey Quaye and Alolga Akata-Pore were members of the PNDC. A third, a retired army captain, Kojo Tsikata, was a PNDC Special Advisor and Head of National Security. Throughout the investigation, the Ghanaian Times, a state-owned newspaper, ran a persistent campaign to discredit the process as well as the SIB members. Azu Crabbe reportedly attempted to resign at a point during this period. Soon after the presentation of the Final Report, Azu Crabbe and Captain Tsikata engaged in exchanges in the public media over allegations of his (Crabbes's) supposed connection with the American CIA.