Preventive Gaol Act Repealed

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31029, 7 April 1966, Page 17

Preventive Gaol Act Repealed

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright) ACCRA, April 6. The new Ghana Government of MajorGeneral Joseph Ankrah yesterday repealed the Preventive Detention Act under which an estimated 2000 men were arrested and kept in prison indefinitely without being charged.

The Preventive Detention ■ Act was passed in July, 1958, 16 months after Ghana became independent. Since then, it had been strongly criticised in Britain and many parts of Africa but was defended in Ghana itself on the grounds that it helped to prevent civil strife and alleged anti-Government plotting by opponents of the Government. At one time or another, most of the leaders of the Opposition United Party were detained under the Act. They included Mr Joe Appiah, son-in-law of the former British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Stafford Cripps, and Dr. J. B. Danquah, a Ghanaian lawyer and elder statesman. Died In Prison Dr. Danquah, who chose the name Ghana for his country, died in prison while in preventive detention.

The Act allowed detention for up to five years without trial, but the term could be

extended at the Government’s discretion. One of the first acts of Ghana’s new National Liberation Council after deposing Dr. Nkrumah in February was to release about 1000 detainees held under the Preventive Detention Act. At the same time, the council placed most of Dr. Nkrumah’s ministers, members of Parliament and party officials in protective custody.