Convenor of the Democracy Hub, Oliver Barker-Vormawor has justified the group’s lawsuit seeking the removal of the name ‘Kotoka’ from the country’s international airport.
Lieutenant General Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka was one of the key figures who orchestrated the 1966 coup d’etat to overthrow the country’s founding father and first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
A lawsuit document cited indicates a collaborative effort between the Democracy Hub and the Dr. Nkrumah’s party, the Convention People’s Party (CPP) to remove Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka‘s name from the airport. Naming the airport after someone who played a key role in a coup contradicts the country’s democratic values, according to the document.
In an interview with Citi News, Oliver explained that the country needs to ensure that its national symbols reflect its democratic principles. He expressed that naming the airport after the said person could be valorising coup d’etat, something the Supreme Court prohibits.
“The question of revisionism, history is made up of both naming and renaming. So, the process of determining a name is the same way that India’s Mumbai became Bombay. Even the project of removing the name is also part of history.”
“It doesn’t also mean the names of all coup makers should be removed. If we keep the name of the Kotoka Airport is to remain the same, any other nothing but his role in the overthrow in 1966, we don’t think there will be a case to be made under the 1992 constitution.”
“So, for us, it doesn’t make any difference whether Kotoka is named after a street in Mallata or the airport. The bigger question is, will this be valorising a coup d’état? If this is the case, the Supreme Court said you cannot do that. If it was named after him because his name was the nicest name back then, then there is no legal remedy there,” he said.
Meanwhile, the CPP have expressed that they have no knowledge of the lawsuit filed. They have, in effect, dissociated themselves from the legal action.
Source: Dehotpress
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