It has been five years since three members of the Taifa Watchdog Committee were murdered in cold blood by a combined military and police team, and government is yet to finalize the matter.

It will be recalled that on June 13, 2002, members of the Taifa Watchdog Committee who were responding to a distress call from a resident who was under the threat of armed robbers were met on their way and mistaken for armed robbers by a combined team of Police and military consisting of two policemen and two soldiers, who ordered them out of the taxi they were traveling in, lined them up and shot three of them in cold blood.

That was in spite of the fact that these men showed the security officers their ID cards and told them they were members of the Taifa Watchdog Committee and were responding to an emergency call from a neighbour who is under a threat from armed robbers. They said the officers took their cards and tore them.

After the incident, the bodies and the survivors were paraded before the press and TV cameras as armed robbers.

Two survivors of the cold-blooded murder Obeng Akrofi, 39 years who is a mason and Francis Sarpong 27 years old and a welder spoke on Thursday morning to Super Morning Show host Kojo Oppong Nkrumah.

According to the survivors, they were armed only with whistles and clubs. They also said they had in their possession a double barreled gun, which was registered with the Mile 7 police.

Even though, a committee that was set up and chaired by Prof. Ivan Addae-Mensah, a former vice-chancellor of the University of Ghana, and now with the Petroleum Tender Board completed its work in 2002 and made recommendations to the Attorney-General, the officers involved are yet to be prosecuted.

According to the survivors, they have been given some monetary compensations of between ¢25.5 million and ¢28 million, but they are unaware of how much was paid to the families of the dead.

Meanwhile, the committee recommended a compensation package of ¢50 million each for families of the dead and ¢30 million for the survivors who also suffered injuries as a result of beatings they suffered in the hands of the security officers.

When asked about what the government was doing about it, Deputy Minister for Information and National Orientation, Mr. Frank Agyekum, said he should be given time to check on the facts.