Rev Dr Opuni Frimpong, General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG), is calling for “healing of wounds” following the burial of slain Major Maxwell Mahama but insists that justice must be served.
“We should not force anything on anyone and the laws of this country must work and we hope that somebody will not wake up one morning and say ‘we don’t have evidence so the people have been discharged’. We must find the people who caused this pain to the whole country and especially the family and then per our laws punish them,” he told Valentina Ofori-Afriyie on Class FM’s 505 on Friday, June 9.
He said: “The [bereaved] family is free to say that ‘we have been able to free ourselves, heal ourselves and forgiven them’, but that should not stop the country from applying our laws because we need also to build a future [with] structures that will deter people from repeating such things.”
The late soldier was lynched by a group of people at Denkyira Obuasi in the Central Region where he was on official duty to combat illegal small-scale mining, popularly known as galamsey.
The angry mob mistook Major Mahama for an armed robber after a snail seller spotted a pistol on him when he was reaching for his pocket to pay for snails he had bought from her while jogging on Monday 29 May.
He has been given a state burial with full military funeral traditions at the Osu cemetery.
The clergyman explained that after the burial, it is now time for introspection, forgiveness, and patching up.
“Moving forward we need to heal the wounds; this country must heal its wounds. …What these people have done to the deceased, we need to heal our wounds and even those who think they have made mistakes must forgive themselves and call also for forgiveness.
“In doing so it does not mean that the perpetrators must go scot-free, that is not the point. So, yes, we can forgive the people who are calling for [forgiveness], and the nation must heal its wounds.
“What happened has affected almost the whole country and even certain individuals including the parents, the wife, the children, colleagues, church members, and all that and we must free ourselves from this painful experience.”
He charged public institutions to be effective in discharging their duties, especially with the prosecution of criminal cases, to avoid uncertainties in the mind of ordinary Ghanaians especially when people commit crimes and then the next moment they escape justice.
He felt public education would need to be intensified for people to understand legal and judicial processes to banish the perception that criminals are not being made to face the law.
He said Ghanaians must accept that “something has gone wrong and then that is where you move a step to find solutions”.
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