LIBYA Kills 5 Ghanaian Men
Kankam, said to be known to Libyan authorities as Mahmud Mustapha Abubacar, hails from Akim Oda in the Eastern Region.
He has been convicted for allegedly stabbing a certain Isaac Oppong, a native of Dormaa Ahenkro in the Brong Ahafo Region and has since been sentenced under Sharia law in the North African country for manslaughter.
Only the family of Isaac Oppong can save Kamkam from going the way of the four other Ghanaians already dispatched to the world beyond. He is said to have been convicted after a scuffle with Isaac led to the death of the Dormaa born Ghanaian immigrant.
If the Libyan authorities go ahead to execute him, the number of Ghanaians who have faced capital punishment in recent times in the oil-rich North African country would have risen to five.
Kankam is said to have also attracted the wrath of his jailors for his role in the publicity given to the now executed Kojo Blankson and Samuel Ayi Ayitey. The two Ghanaians were executed on Saturday after pleas for clemency and President John Agyekum Kufuor’s last-minute intervention for stay of execution were turned down.
The late Blankson handed over his mobile phone to Kankam before he was marched to the stakes with one of them allegedly telling him “You would soon die”.
Now being held incommunicado by the Libyans, it does not appear that anything would be heard from Kankam anymore.
Before his execution, Kojo Blankson conversed with his aged mother, sister and daughter in what he described as his last chat with them.
Kojo Blankson and his compatriot Samuel Ayitey who had been held since 1998 over the murder of their Libyan employer were said to be innocent.
An Algerian, convicted for the murder of the Libyan had already been executed, according to a family spokesperson and a member of the International Correctional and Prisons Association, Mr. Michael Ampadu Jnr.
Kojo Blankson, DAILY GUIDE gathered from family sources, was on his way to work when Libyan security officers nabbed him.
“Even before the fatal bullets hit him, he was said to have uttered the words ‘menim hu hwee’ (I don’t know anything),” a family source quoted a Ghana Embassy official as saying.
President Kufuor, the family source noted, played a critical role to have the sentence reversed “but we were surprised at the behaviour of the Libyan President who appeared not to have done anything to save the life of our innocent brother.”
Diplomatic activities about Ghanaian nationals on death-row started on January 20, 2008 when the Ghana Embassy in Tripoli informed the Foreign Affairs Ministry about the planned execution of two Ghanaians- Asare Bediako and Charles Ansah Joseph.
The two, on death-row with Kojo Blankson since December 2002, according to the Ghana Embassy, were convicted for the murder of a Libyan national.
Their executions, scheduled first for December 2002 and later May 2007, were put on hold following government interventions at the highest level.
Eventually, the Libyan authorities executed two of them, with the fate of Blankson at the time unknown to the mission.
That the Libyans would ignore the diplomatic interventions from Ghana was evident in their correspondence to the Ghana mission on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2008.
In the correspondence, the Libyan authorities responded thus: “The General People’s Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation (Consular Affairs Department) presents its compliments to the esteemed Embassy of the Republic of Ghana accredited to Great Jamahiriya and is sorry to inform that in implementing the sentences issued, passed and approved by the Higher Court and the High Court of Judicial Boards, there would be an execution of two Ghanaian prisoners namely
1. J.K. Blankson and 2. Samuel Ayittey. The execution will take place on Saturday 16/02/2008 at 09:00hrs at the Kofiya Rehabilitation Facility in Benghazi.”
According to the Ghanaian envoy, Ambassador Kodjo A. Wadee, in his correspondence to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, “The two condemned nationals, however, if there is anything to learn from the previous interventions, would have the effect of only postponing the executions because it does appear that the Libyan authorities are determined to carry them out, sooner or later”.
The correspondence, dated January 20, 2008, indicated that the mission had in a last minute effort sent a request to the Libyan authorities asking that the executions be placed on hold as the reaction from Accra is awaited.
In another correspondence dated February 14, 2008 and signed by the Ag. Head of Mission, Yakubu Alhassan, the Foreign Affairs Ministry was informed about the scheduled execution of Messrs Kojo Blankson and Sammy Ayittey.
The two were said to have been implicated in the murder of a Libyan and Senegalese national respectively.
The Libyans, according to the correspondence, were determined to carry out the executions “and only an intervention at the highest level of the two governments may spare the lives of the two condemned nationals”.
The mission dispatched a consular officer and a translator to the Benghazi prison to render consular services to the condemned Ghanaians.
A family source told DAILY GUIDE at their Alajo residence about how President Kufuor and Ambassador D.K. Osei put up a last-minute intervention in spite of previous ones to have the decision reversed.
The late Kojo Blankson, 54, lost his father through a similar tragic circumstance after he was shot by unknown assailants in 1985. He left behind an 81-year-old mother and two kids. source: Daily Guide
Its only the almighty GOD who can judge this case at the judgement day and i feel pity for ghanaians in libya but there is nothing i can do and there is tears on my eyes now because the situation in which ghanaian live in libya and more over in prison. Let us not judge ourselves on earth if the libyan sharia law is the right way GOD KNOWS the ghanaians who are already killed let their souls rest in peace and may the almighty god be with them and those on the waiting list to be kill GOD WILL MAKE THEM GLAD.
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