The
National Reconciliation Commission sittings
26 – 02 – 2003: - NDC urges NRC to be more circumspect
26 – 02 – 2003: - Major Aquah’s widow calls for fresh probe
26 – 02 – 2003: - Jack Beble denies shooting witness’ legs
20 – 02 – 2003: - Sadzimadza at NRC again
20 – 02 – 2003: - Rawlings ordered my release - witness
19 – 02 – 2003: - Evidence against BNI, Nanfuri were false - Asase-Gyimah
19 – 02 – 2003: - Lebanese says he lost four companies, three cars while in detention
19 – 02 – 2003: - I survived three bullets - Ex-Soldier tells NRC
18 – 02 – 2003: - NRC invites Nanfuri and Assase-Gyimah
14 – 02 – 2003: - Commissioners descend heavily on witness
13 – 02 – 2003: - Rawlings by passed laid down military rules - Ex-Corporal
13 – 02 – 2003: - Mice bit my manhood as I was tortured - Witness
13 – 02 – 2003: - "Rawlings might not have been aware"-Nana Ahima
07 – 02 – 2003: - "I used evidence as toilet roll" - ex-sergeant
07 – 02 – 2003: - Witness still wondering why he was arrested and tortured
07 – 02 – 2003: - Assasie-Gyimah petitions National Reconciliation Commission
06 – 02 – 2003: - My patriotism landed me in unlawful detention
06 – 02 – 2003: - Witness
tells NRC: "Only one bullet, that's all!"
05 – 02 – 2003: - Commission
continues public hearings of torture
05 – 02 – 2003: - Former
Customs boss narrates ordeal
05 – 02 – 2003: - Ex-soldier
names Nanfuri, Bebli and others as torturers
04 – 02 – 2003: - Refusal
to appear before NRC is an offence
31 – 01 – 2003: - Nanfuri
handed me over for torture - Ex-soldier
31 – 01 – 2003: - Chief
weeps before NRC
30 – 01 – 2003: - E.
T. Mensah ordered my torture
29 – 01 – 2003: - 1963
bomb blast revisited at Reconciliation Commission
29 – 01 – 2003: - Ex-cop
before Reconciliation Commission
29 – 01 – 2003: - Woman
loses voice through torture
29 – 01 – 2003: - Case
of judges’ murder for Reconciliation Commission
24 – 01 – 2003: - Pensioner
petition NRC for increase in salary
22 – 01 – 2003: - I
was tortured till I forgot my name - Hammah
21 – 01 – 2003: - Victim of torture says he developed hearing problems
21 – 01 – 2003: - Reconciliation
witness stuns house with emotional delivery
21 – 01 – 2003: - Victims testifying before NRC lauded
21 – 01 – 2003: - Minority
commends Reconciliation Commission, but…
17 – 01 – 2003: - Soldiers
douched woman with pepper and gunpowder
17 – 01 – 2003: - Konadu
doubts Reconciliation Commission’s integrity
16 – 01 – 2003: - Assistant
Director of Prisons denies allegations at NRC
15 – 01 – 2003: - Reconciliation
sittings in Accra for next three weeks
15 – 01 – 2003: - NRC
is not a court of law
15 – 01 – 2003: - Amarkai
Amarteifio is first man at Reconciliation Commission
15 – 01 – 2003: - NRC hears
four cases in its maiden hearing
14 – 01 – 2003: - Reconciliation Commission begins hearing
NDC urges NRC to be more circumspect
It said the NRC should also endeavour to
investigate cases before allowing for public hearings. This was contained in a
memorandum to the NRC signed by Dr. Josiah Aryeh, General secretary of the NDC.
Throwing more light on the inaccuracies of
the hearings, the memorandum said in one instance, a "schizophrenic"
was allowed to accuse former state officials on national television while in
another, a woman mentioned of the confiscation of 25 million cedis she kept in
a box.
It said 25m cedis in 1979 was too huge an
amount to represent a Makola trader's weekly sales, adding that the highest
denomination then was ten cedi notes. The statement said "It is
unimaginable that an amount of 25m cedis could have fitted into a chop box
unless it was close to the size of a container".
The memorandum also criticized the
situation where one Captain Ben Duah was allowed to pour "vitriolic
invectives" on former President Rawlings, adding that once the Captain did
not accuse the former president of any misdeed, the Commission appeared only to
have provided a platform for his outburst.
The statement cautioned that if such
anomalies were not corrected, the Commission might end up becoming a vehicle
for division instead of reconciliation. It urged the Commission to establish
the credibility of witnesses before expressing public sympathies for them
during hearings, since that created the impression that even before listening
to the other side the Commission already believed their stories.
The memorandum said although the NDC
believed in the need for national reconciliation, it had to be non-retributive
and bipartisan. It said judging from what had happened so far, it was obvious
that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government had an objective to exploit the
proceedings of the NRC for propaganda purposes.
"The Commission's own procedures are
also tending to confirm the fear of regime-targeting with the Armed Forces
Revolutionary Council and Provisional National Defence Council which are
perceived as the predecessors of the NDC as the main target," it said. The
Memorandum urged the NRC to act in a manner, which would disprove those fears
and build up confidence and trust among the citizenry.
GRi.../
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Major Aquah's widow calls for fresh probe
Accra
(Greater Accra) 26 February 2003- Tearful Mrs Jemima
Acquah, wife of the late Major Sam Acquah, a retired army major killed together
with the three high court judges on 30 June 1982 , on Tuesday passionately appealed to the National Reconciliation
Commission (NRC) to institute fresh investigations into the circumstances
leading to her husband's death.
She tendered a copy of the report by the
Special Investigations Board (SIB) instituted by the then Provisional National
Defence Council (PNDC) and said she believed that the state sponsored the
killing of her husband.
Led in evidence by Allotei Mingle, Mrs
Acquah narrated the story of how her husband was abducted on Wednesday, 30 June
1982, and the announcement of his death later by the then Chairman of the PNDC,
Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings on national television.
She now stays in a rented premise at the
SSNIT Flats, Dansoman in
She said her pleas to the man to allow her
husband to finish his meal were to no avail and the stranger pulled a pistol
and threatened to kill Major Acquah if he resisted. The man would also not
allow her to fetch a pair of sandals for her husband as he whisked him away.
Later another man in smock emerged and
reassured her that her husband would be brought back safely after the
interrogation. She said she hardly slept that night. The following day she
reported the abduction to Major Acquah's cousin, one Major Keelson at Burma
Camp and their Pastor at Odorkor.
From that day crowds came to the house to
sympathise with her and the children, one of whom was then three years old.
Mrs. Acquah said she had no news of the whereabouts of her husband till the
Sunday when Chairman Rawlings announced on Television that her husband had been
found dead and that a full-scale investigation would be instituted into the
death.
Mrs Acquah said she collapsed upon hearing
of the sad news. She said police CID later came to interrogate her about the
cause of her husband's death. Mrs Acquah stated that she had still not got the
convincing outcome of the trial of the murder of her husband, who was found
dead together with three former High Court Judges.
Mrs. Acquah said the Ghana Industrial
Holding Corporation (GIHOC) where her husband worked, gave the family a funeral
donation and allowed her to stay at their Dzorwulu residence for six months
after which she was asked to leave.
She said the family to which SSNIT had
rented the Dzowulu house asked her and the children to stay on until they found
their present residence at Dansoman. Mrs Acquah said neither the Ghana Armed
Forces (GAF) nor GIHOC had paid to them any gratuity or end of service benefit
of her late husband.
She said she had to finance her children's
education through proceeds from selling basic wares and rented property of her
late husband. The family of her late husband collected all the husband's
property and the care of the children was no business of theirs.
When Uborr Dalafu Labal II, asked about
how she felt of the loss, Mrs. Acquah said it was most disturbing to her when
her children asked her to provide something to them and she could not afford.
She said it was disturbing when the
children remarked that if their father were to be alive he would have provided
their needs willingly. She said the Lord had ordered forgiveness and she had
forgiven all those who offended them but stressed that the killing of her
husband had to be investigated again to ascertain the truth.
George Asare Garbrah, a former Deputy
Minister of Defence in Limann's Administration, told the Commission of how he
and his driver were tortured at Takoradi Air Force Base following the
He said he had gone to the Western Region
to check on cocoa smuggling when the coup took place and he obeyed an order
from the new PNDC regime for all political functionaries to report to the
nearest Police station.
He reported at Yaakese the day after the
take-over, and was transported to Takoradi.
Garbrah said 100,000 cedis belonging to the Customs, Excise and
Preventive Service (CEPS), 10,000 cedis being his personal money and 5,000
cedis and a pistol belonging to his brother were all collected from him.
He said at the Takoradi Air Force Base he
and his driver were stripped to their panties, a lot of water was poured on
them after which they were led into the guardroom where they were severely
beaten.
Later they were sent to Sekondi cells
where the beatings continued. They were transferred to the Cantonments Police
Station the following day where they were made to sleep on the bare floor for
the night.
Garbrah at this point sat still and wiped
tears from his eyes. He said they were transported in a bus to the Usher Fort
Cells and then to Nsawam Prisons. He said he was detained in an over-crowded
cell and spoke of how one day a prisoner died slowly.
Garbrah, who is an ex-pilot and a dentist,
said they were removed from the Prisons and brought to Gondar Barracks. At the
barracks, they were made to sit on freshly quarried stone and soldiers put some
sand in his eyes. He was sent to 37 Military Hospital for treatment, but this
has affected his sight and his profession as a pilot.
He said back in the Nsawam Prisons,
Professor Kofi Awoonor, then Special Assistant to the PNDC Chairman and one
Awotwe, who interrogated him told him that as investigators, they would throw
everything they had against him.
He said Prof. Awoonor made him to sit on
his hands and when a fly buzzed around him, he teased him to kill the fly.
Garbrah said he spent two years in prison and developed high blood pressure. He
said his timber business collapsed and his licence as a pilot also got missing.
He registered his strong abhorrence to military coups. Hearing continues.
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Jack Bebli denies
shooting witness' legs
Accra (Greater Accra) 26 February 2003-
Ex-Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) Jack Bebli, on Tuesday denied allegations of
shooting made against him by Alex Kwabena Nsiah, a 36-year-old witness at the
National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), saying he had never known Nsiah in
his life.
Jack, who swore on the Bible, told the
Commission that he had converted from traditional religion and become a
born-again Christian worshipping with the
He is serving a prison sentence for his
role in the robbery of gold when a gang ambushed a bullion van in the Central
Region. Bebli added that he never believed Nsiah's story, saying throughout his
life, he had never shot a bird let alone a human being and to have fired at
Nsiah's legs.
Nsiah who limped on a false leg to the
witness seat told the Commission that Bebli led a group armed men on an
operation on
Nsiah said after closing from work on that
day he rode a motorbike towards Alajo to look for food when suddenly he heard
sounds of gunshots. As people ran helter-skelter in the heat of the melee,
Nsiah said he stopped at the side of the road.
Bebli came out from a Peugeot 504 car and
called him a foolish boy. He then heard of a gunshot and a bullet hit his right
leg and penetrated into his left leg. He said Bebli pushed him into a Land
Rover vehicle and made him lie on top of a number of dead bodies and drove off.
They ended up at the 37
Nsiah said there was no improvement in his
condition at Korle Bu and he was sent to Larteh in the Eastern Region for
herbal treatment. He said his brother-in-law, who was a policeman, arranged for
him to be brought back to the 37 Military Hospital, where his right leg was
amputated.
He said while on admission in the 37
Military Hospital, Police kept surveillance on him. Upon his discharge from the
hospital, he was sent to the Police Information Room, and an hour later taken
to the headquarters of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), where Mr
Peter Nanfuri, then BNI boss ordered that he should be sent to the BNI Annex
cells and locked up for two days.
Nsiah said when he was brought back to the
BNI Headquarters, Nanfuri and a Naval Captain Baafour Assasie-Gyimah
interrogated him about some soldiers in the Northern Region. He said he told
his interrogators that he had never been to that part of the country and had no
acquaintance there.
Back to the BNI Annex, Nsiah said he met
Sgt Alolga Akatapore, former member of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council
(AFRC), Captain Guseini Gambo and one Afriyie all political detainees in the
cells.
His interrogators again asked him to tell
the truth about his acquaintances in the Northern Region and he maintained his
earlier position. Nsiah said upon his release, he engaged the services of a
lawyer and he was given 523,264.25 cedis as compensation.
He initially declined to accept the money,
but obliged on the advice of his brother-in-law, who footed his medical bills.
He asked for resettlement from the state. During cross-examination by counsel
for Bebli, Nsiah said he never knew Bebli personally but had seen him on
motorbike several times before the incident. He said there were other people in
the car when Bebli came out to talk to him.
Bebli said he had denounced his first name
Jack, which he described as "devilish", and was now called Paul. He
said throughout the previous night when he prayed, God never revealed to him
that he had ever shot Nsiah to admit culpability and ask for pardon.
Bebli claimed that he had had 64 years of
service as a policeman and ex-guardsman to
Despite this national service, he claimed,
he was rather jailed on "an allegation of gold robbery". Now Nsiah
was also accusing him of having shot him.
Speaking in broken English Bebli said:
"I will tell the Commission that after all the suffer, I suffer for the
Bebli, formerly in Charge of the Police
Commando Unit, told the Commission that 57 personnel worked under him on day
and night patrol duties to "protect the nation". He said their
ammunitions were checked after their duties, but he did not know all the
operations the personnel were engaged in at the time.
Bebli said the personnel on duty often
engaged in brawls with drivers, mostly taxi drivers, over traffic offences, but
said he was unaware of an operation codenamed "Search and Destroy"
carried out by the Commando Unit. He also denied using a Peugeot 504 car for an
operation as alleged by Nsiah in his testimony. Hearing continues.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 20 February 2003-
Tobge Sadzimadza Afari, made a second appearance before the National
Reconciliation Commission (NRC) using his private name, Christian Afaglo, to
respond to interrogation by counsel for people he made allegations against
during his first appearance.
Afaglo stood by his allegations against
Togbe Addo VIII, Fiagah of Klikor Traditional Area. In his previous evidence he
alleged that Togbe Addo ejected his family from his house at Klikor during his
days of detention and again, Togbe Addo lured him to hand over his property to
the Klikor Community.
He also provided documents to prove that
he gave furniture and other items to Togbe Addo. In his response, Togbe Addo
explained that he made Afaglo write a letter handing over his property, made up
of a school, a clinic and a post office to the Klikor community as a way to be
used as evidence of his patriotism.
He said that was necessary because Afaglo
was in detention and he (Addo) needed that letter to convince Flt. Lt. Jerry John
Rawlings of Afaglo's patriotism and his subsequent release.
"I was able to get the letter to
Rawlings, but just before he took a decision to release him, Afaglo escaped to
Togbe Addo admitted that he was aware that
Afaglo with the assistance of some Koreans and one Anyimadu constructed the
school and the clinic. He said the land on which the structures were
constructed however, was given out by Togbe Addo VI to the government of I K
Acheampong's regime for the same purposes.
"I got close to Afaglo, who was then
a Sub-chief in Sadzimadza Kope and I honoured him as a progressive Chief of
Klikor for his immense contribution to the development of the area," he
said.
On the issue of an X-ray machine, which
Afaglo claimed it was his personal property, which he gave to be used at the
clinic, Togbe Addo said he took delivery of the machine, a van and some drugs
on behalf of the Klikor community at a durbar.
"I handed over the machine, the van
and drugs to Afaglo to be used in the clinic and the school," he said.
"I am surprised that he said the X-ray machine was a gift to him
personally by one Dr. Kim from
Togbe Addo alleged that after the delivery
of the X-ray machine and drugs, there was a promise of another consignment of
drugs for Klikor, but he got the information that Afaglo concealed the drugs in
his hotel at Tema. He said some of the issues Mr. Afaglo raised are currently
in court so he did not want to comment on them.
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Rawlings ordered my release - witness
Accra (Greater Accra) 20 February 2003-
Alhaji Abubakari Musah, a Butcher at Ashaiman, on Wednesday told the National
Reconciliation Commission (NRC) the ex president Jerry John Rawlings ordered
his release from the Gondar Barracks cells in 1979, after he had been
wrongfully arrested and tortured by one Corporal Peter Tasiri and five others.
Alhaji Musah said in the wake of the
"I refused to sell to him at the
controlled prices he requested for, so he left in anger," he said.
"The following day at
He said in his house he was given three
slaps and his money, 1m CFA Francs, $350, his passport and his Peugeot 504 car
were taken from him, adding that he was then sent to the
Alhaji Musah said at the
Alhaji Musah said Tasiri was refused
access to the cells until one day Rawlings called for him (Musah) to be brought
to his office in the barracks. "Rawlings asked for the reasons for my
arrest and when he was told, he ordered my immediate release," he said.
"He even gave his personal car for me to be driven home."
He said later on
It was alleged that one RSM Billy,
Afriyie, Alhaji Mustapha, Alhaji Sulemana and Col. Abittoe, who were declared
dissidents at the time, were allegedly based in
Alhaji Musah said in four different
interrogations, he denied knowledge of any such plot, though he knew at least
two of the alleged dissidents, adding that RSM Billy once sold a corn mill
machine to him and Alhaji Mustapha was his brother.
He said he was detained at the BNI for
four months and sent to the Usher Fort Prisons for another two years five
months without trial. "I was then taken to the tribunal at the State House
and on the account of some witnesses, I was sentenced to death by firing
squad," he said. "After three months of appeal, my appeal was
dismissed and I was put in the condemned cells at Nsawam Prisons."
Alhaji Musah said at Nsawam, 21 people
were picked up from his cell for execution but his sentence was changed to life
imprisonment, adding that after 14 years in prison he was released in 1997 for
reasons not known to him.
He said on his release he went to Peter
Nanfuri, Director of BNI at the time when the BNI personnel seized his items
and Nanfuri, who had then become the IGP, referred him to one Gyan at the BNI.
"I met Gyan and he told me he did not
know the whereabout of my items but gave me a letter to be given to the
Commission to make a formal request for my items," he said.
Alhaji Musah said till date he has not
recovered his items, adding that as a result of his imprisonment two of three
wives married other men and all his 10 children have become school dropouts.
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Evidence against BNI, Nanfuri were false -
Asase-Gyimah
Accra (Greater Accra) 19 February 2003-
Naval Captain (Rtd.) Baffuor Asase-Gyimah, former National Security
Coordinator, on Tuesday told the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) that
some evidence of torture levelled against the Bureau of National Investigations
(BNI) should be taken with a pinch of salt.
He also said he was amazed at allegations
made against Peter Nanfuri, then Director of the BNI, during the Provisional
National Defence Council (PNDC) era. "People are throwing dust into the
eyes of the honourable members of the Commission, but when the dust settles we
shall know that truth about the BNI and Nanfuri."
Capt. Asase-Gyimah made his first
appearance at the NRC to respond to allegations of torture made against him by
Ex-private Samuel Twumhene and corroborated by one Stanley Okyere, also an
ex-soldier.
He was alleged to have ordered the late
Flt. Lt. Kojo Lee and Flt. Lt. Fordjuor to torture Twumhene during an
interrogation in February 1983, after an alleged coup plot against the PNDC.
Capt. Asase-Gyimah said from his
intercourse with the BNI as national security coordinator he learnt that the
BNI comprised honourable men and women, who had graduated with honours and were
serious about life. They would therefore, not get involved in the kind of
torture described by the various witnesses at the Commission over the past five
weeks.
"I know that everything which
happened in the BNI is normally recorded on paper, audio and video tapes, and I
would advise that the Commission goes for the facts at the BNI before drawing
their conclusions on the evidence given by witness.
"But I can say on authority that the
BNI is not even a quarter of what people are painting it to be," he said.
He, however, could not say the same for the Gondar Barracks at Burma Camp,
where he admitted, torture, mayhem and molestation of suspects was rampant
during the revolutionary days, between 1982 and 1983.
"I personally witnessed the
molestation of the junior military men, who might have included Twumhene, by
their colleagues at the Gondar Barracks after they were arrested at their coup
plot base and I stopped the molestation," he said.
Capt. Asase-Gyimah, a lawyer by
profession, advised the Commission to take evidence about issues of national
security in camera, adding that such issues were sensitive and it was important
that the national security machinery was protected from the tendencies of
negative evidence.
He said BNI was the only protective
machinery this nation had and it was imperative that its integrity was
protected. Capt. Asase Gyimah, however, admitted that he did not have all the
answers about the alleged nefarious activities of the BNI, saying that some
personnel of the BNI subjected suspects to unofficial and unprofessional
interrogations and he could not account for them.
Asked whether he was aware of late night
interrogations and torture at the BNI, he said he himself was on two occasions,
almost picked up by personnel from the BNI in the night. Based on that he could
say there were some nocturnal activities by BNI personnel but he not could say
those were official.
Almost every member of the Commission
explained to Capt. Asase-Gyimah that the evidence before the Commission about
the BNI and Nanfuri were given in writing by different persons, at different
times and different locations ahead of the hearing and yet all of them pointed
to the same issue of torture and late night interrogations.
He still insisted that the Commission
would need to get the individual records of those who made the allegations from
the BNI and find out from the records what actually happened at the BNI.
Justice K. E. Amua-Sekyi told Capt. Asase-Gyimah that the Commission had
thoroughly investigated the evidence at the BNI ahead of the hearing and
therefore, had the kind of evidence Asase-Gyimah was talking about.
For the first time at the hearing, the
Chairman asked a question when he asked Capt. Asase-Gyimah the disparity
between the rule and practice regarding the molestation of junior military men
by senior officers.
Capt. Asase-Gyimah said the rule debars
officers from using their hands on the men. The NRC chairman referred him to a
book titled "When the Gun Rules" saying in that book it was revealed
that military officers used their hands on military men.
Capt. Asase-Gyimah kept alluding to the
revolution as a reason why there was a breakdown of the rules and discipline in
the military, which allowed certain wrong things to be done by military men at
the time.
Earlier he was allowed to interrogate
Twumhene and he sought to establish that he (Twumhene) was involved in a coup
plot in the house of one Major Ackanson at Achimota on
He alleged that Twumhene and about 15
others met in that house and one Lt. Abittoe furnished them with weapons, which
Twumhene was involved in off-loading from a truck. He added that Twumhene
personally requested that if the coup were successful, he would have liked the
post of Army Commander.
Capt. Asase-Gyimah denied ever ordering
anybody to torture Twumhene, saying he never interrogated anyone who was tortured
in his presence or had been tortured earlier and looked obviously unfit to
answer questions.
In response to a question as to whether he
was aware that his name evokes negative feelings in people, he said that might
be because he was disciplined and non-tolerant of crime of any nature and so
people who had criminal intentions feared him.
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Lebanese says he lost four companies, three cars while
in detention
Accra (Greater Accra) 19 February 2003- A
businessman on Tuesday told the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) in
Accra that he lost his four companies and three cars as a result of four years'
of unlawful detention after returning from his home country of Lebanon where he
lived for six years following his alleged complicity in an alleged coup.
"All my 40 years of toil have
evaporated", Sammy Nasiri Nicholas Nasser told the NRC. He said his
petitions to a number of institutions had yielded little or no positive
results.
Not long after that Pianim was alleged to
be involved in a coup attempt to oust the then Provisional National Defence
Council (PNDC).
His four companies and his vehicles - Mercedes
Benz car, BMW, Volvo and an American car - were confiscated to the state. He
said that Kofi Djin, one time Secretary for the Interior, used one of the cars
and one Tony Gbeho, formerly of the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) also
used one.
He said the American car was later
returned to him.
He said he had neither water nor food in
the cells and slept on the bare cement floor for three days.
He said after initial laboratory tests he was
driven to the theatre for surgery, which could not come off because the theatre
was not functioning and there was no bed.
He said he was transferred to the James
Fort Prison, and then to the Nsawam Prsion, where he again developed hernia.
When he pleaded to be sent to hospital, B. T. Baba said it was not safe for
security reasons at the time, which was during the Non-Aligned Conference
Meeting.
He said Nana Ato Dadzie, who was handling
his wife's petition to the then Chairman Jerry John Rawlings to have him
released did not even want to see her again.
During cross-examination Capt.
Asssie-Gyimah asked
Capt. Assasie-Gyimah asked
Nasser, who said he and Capt.
Assasie-Gyimah had hugged each other when they met at the Commission, said he
had no animosity towards him. The Most Reverend Charles Palmer-Buckle, a member
of the Commission asked Nasser, who clutched a briefcase, which he said, was
full of records of the events at the BNI interrogations room, to publish his
records for the education of Ghanaians.
Hearing continues.
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I survived three bullets - Ex-Soldier tells NRC
Accra (Greater Accra) 19 February 2003-
Ex-Able Seaman Edward Somua Adofo, Tuesday alleged that he was shot thrice in
the leg, neck and stomach when he tried to prevent armed military men from
entering the residence of the late Real Admiral Joy Amedume during the 4 June
uprising.
He said as a result of the gunshot his
intestines gushed out and he fell unconscious in a pool of blood, adding that
his colleagues who concluded he was dead performed his funeral when he was
recovering at the 37 Military Hospital.
"On my return home from the hospital
after about 10 weeks I went to my home town and those who saw me initially ran
away because they thought I was a ghost," he said. Adofo said during his
seven years and 138 days service with the navy, he was detailed to guard the
late Real Admiral Amedume's residence, adding that on the
He said he and his six colleagues on guard
at the time were posted at vantage points in the house and he was put in charge
of the gate so he opened the gate to talk to the soldiers. Adofo said the
soldiers asked to be permitted in but he sought their mission, adding that on
questioning them he was given a shot in his leg, but he kept standing and would
not allow them in.
"In the course of our encounter I was
given another shot in my neck then in my stomach and my intestines gushed
out," he said. "That was when I started losing consciousness and I
prayed for God to save my life for me to serve him."
He said he sought for one of his
colleagues to give a verbal will to be given to his family but all of them
abandoned him to his fate till he fell unconscious. Adofo said he woke up after
four weeks and realised he was in a hospital bed at the 37 military hospital
with stitches all over his body and tubes in his anus and neck for passing out
faeces and for eating.
He said after 10 weeks in the hospital he
was discharged and he left for his hometown where he discovered to his
amazement that he had been reported dead and his funeral had been performed
weeks ago.
"Later I went back to the naval base
and none of my officers and my colleagues mentioned anything about my ordeal,
as if they were not aware that I had suffered anything," he said.
He said in the course of time he asked for
excuse duty to attend to his health, adding that when it was granted he left
the barracks for home to be with his wife and children to receive adequate care
because the barracks apartments were designed for individuals and not for
families.
Adofo said on his return from the house to
the barracks he was accused of Absence Without Official Leave (AWOL), which was
punishable by summary dismissal, adding that he was on that grounds discharged
on
"In my discharge book I was given a
fitting testimonial except that the testimonial stated that I was discharged on
medical grounds and that has since worked against me in my attempts to seek
employment elsewhere, he said. He said he was given his gratuity of about
25,000 cedis, adding that he has since not worked for a salary.
Adofo said he has become an Evangelist and
a driver at the same time and has six children. Bishop Charles Palmer-Buckle
and Maulvi Wahab Adam took Adofo to the private room and observed his three gun
shot wounds.
On their return, Bishop Palmer-Buckle said
there were about 3.5 inch scars each on his leg and neck and about 10 inch
scars each on his abdomen and waist, adding that the scars on his abdomen were
also about four millimetres deep.
Adofo said he had long forgiven his
persecutors but anytime he saw his scars, or met military men in uniform or
heard firecrackers during Christmas, he is reminded of his ordeal.
Bishop Palmer-Buckle said the trauma of
Adofo is a good reason why the Commission was necessary, "because in spite
of his Christian faith he is still traumatised anytime he sees his scar,
military men in uniform or hear firecrackers."
He said the counselling session of the
Commission was committed to helping people like Adofo to go over the trauma
once and for all. In another case, Julius Nii Boye Hammond, told the Commission
that he was wrongfully dismissed with about 380 people from the Ghana Post and
Telecommunication Service on
He said he was denied his End of Service
Benefit ESB and has therefore, been living on charity from his church, the
Church of the Living God since the dismissal.
He appealed to the Commission to ensure
that he was either reinstated or given his ESB to make ends meet.
GRi.../
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NRC invites Nanfuri and Assase-Gyimah
Accra (Greater Accra) 18 February 2003-
The National Reconciliation Commission on Monday said it has invited Peter
Nanfuri, former boss of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), and
Captain Assase-Gyimah (RTD), to submit statements in response to testimonies
which mentioned them as perpetrators of torture.
Copies of the verbatim transcript of the
testimonies in question have been forwarded to the two for their study, Ms
Annie Anipa, the NRC Public Affairs Director said. In an encounter with the
press in
She said the Commission had received
letters from Nanfuri and Capt Assasie-Gyimah complaining that they were not
offered the opportunity to attend the hearings of the cases in which they were
cited as perpetrators.
Nanfuri and Captain Assasie-Gyimah have
also gone to the mass media with their complaints, generating public debate on
the fairness of the Commission to the two. Ms Anipa said in the case involving
Mr Nanfuri, the Commission had explained to him that the case in question, in
which Sawundi alleged he masterminded his torture at the BNI office, was
reviewed in the middle of January 2003.
Ms Anipa said a copy of the statement was
subsequently delivered by hand to Nanfuri's solicitors at Agbenetor Chambers on
29 January for his study and comments, but Nanfuri informed the Commission that
he did not receive the statement until
As for the case in which Madam Jacqueline
Acquaye a baker of Aburi, who accused Lt Col Kusi of being a perpetrator in her
testimony, Ms Anipa said Madam Acquaye did not name Lt Col Kusi in her written
testimony.
This notwithstanding, the Commission had
forwarded the transcript of the relevant portions of the verbatim report of her
testimony to Lt Col Kusi for his study, Ms Anipa said, adding that Lt Col Kusi
had also submitted a statement to the Commission, and he would be given the
opportunity to be heard publicly if it considered it necessary.
She noted that the Commission was not a
court of law in the sense that it was not out to determine whether a witness
was guilty or not and for that matter respondents were only invited for hearing
only when they were named as perpetrators with specific allegations made
against them.
She said as at
She assured the public that the Commission
was committed to principles of natural justice and procedural fairness, and as
such, all witnesses whether presumed victims or perpetrators would be given the
opportunity to tell their side of the story.
Ms Anipa said the Commission had put in
place procedures to ensure that the Commission remained focused on its mandated
functions. She explained that in all cases, persons whether alleged victims or
perpetrators appearing for the hearing were required to fill a statement ahead
of hearing.
This, she said, would afford the
Commission the opportunity to review the statement and determine its relevance
to its mandate. Dr Ken Attafuah, the Commission's Executive Secretary, said
public officials against whom allegations were made would be invited to the
Commission public hearing subject to specific allegations and damage and injury
to the petitioner.
He said since the Commission started
taking statements in September last year, a number of people the Commission
recognised as knowledgeable enough on purported role of identifiable bodies on
human rights infractions, including the Students and Labour union, the Legal
and traditional bodies had been invited for hearing in camera.
Edward Mingle, Head of the Legal Affairs
Department, said Enoch Teye Mensah, MP, Ningo Prampram, cited as a perpetrator
in an evidence had been served with a statement of the petitioner through the
Speaker of Parliament. Mingle said it was better for the purposes of records if
respondents react to allegations to the Commission rather than resorting to the
media.
GRi.../
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Commissioners descend heavily on witness
Accra (Greater Accra) 14 February 2003 -
Members of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) on Thursday descended
heavily on ex-military Corporal Kennedy MacCoy Segbawu for his involvement in
the alleged torture of Madam Yaa Anima in the wake of the 31st
December 1981 coup.
At least six of the nine members of the
Commission expressed their disgust for the treatment given to Madam Anima at
the instance of Segbawu. Madam Anima had told the Commission how Segbawu
wrongly accused her of being a smuggler, seized 140 half-pieces of wax prints
from her and handed her over to military men at the Gondar Barracks, where she
was tortured mercilessly till she menstruated prematurely.
General Emmanuel Erskine started by asking
Segbawu whether he had served in any peacekeeping force. Segbawu responded that
he served in the
Mrs Sylvia Boye asked Segbawu whether he
had children. Segbawu's answer elicited a thunderous mixture of laughter and
uproar in the chamber of the Old Parliament House.
Apparently Segbawu knew only three of his
children, who were living with him. But there were so many others he did not
know of. Yet he said he took care of all his children. Mrs Boye, who at that
moment had frowned, told Segbawu: "You denied someone of taking care of
her children but you managed to take care of your own children."
When Professor Florence Abena Dolphyne
asked Segbawu whether there was a ban on the sale of wax prints at the time he
arrested Madam Anima for selling wax prints, he responded in the negative.
She then asked whether Segbawu had the authority
to cause the arrest of people, who went about their legitimate duties and
whether he arrested other people. Segbawu was silent and the interpreter told
the questioner "My Lord no answer."
When Uborr Balafu Labal took his turn, he
asked what criteria Segbawu used to determine whether Madam Anima sold the wax
prints above the approved price. Segbawu could only say: "The PDC people
told me she was selling at an exorbitant price so I arrested her."
At this stage Uborr Balafu laughed at
Segbawu and inquired whether he knew the control prices himself and Segbawu
answered in the negative.
Prof. Henerietta Mensa-Bonsu asked Segbawu
whether he arrested Madam Anima for selling at a high price or for being a
smuggler. "I arrested her for selling above the controlled price but I
could also tell that she was a smuggler." He further stated that in his
report to the soldiers at the Gondar Barracks, he stated that Madam Anima was
selling cloth at prices higher than the stipulated controlled price.
Prof. Mensa-Bonsu asked Segbawu to plead
for forgiveness from Madam Anima and he did that reluctantly. As they shook
hands Madam Anima wept and declared that she had forgiven him.
Earlier in her statement to the
Commission, Madam Anima who wept almost the whole period she made her statement
said her torture, seizure of her property and detention for two weeks put her
in such economic hardship that she almost committed suicide with her four
children.
Madam Anima, who spotted mourning attire
with black scarf to match, told the Commission that she was in the mourning
outfit not because she was bereaved, but to mark the torture she went through.
She said in 1979 she dealt in flour and
textile. But one day after she had bought 440 bags of floor from the Industrial
Area some military men seized them at the
She, therefore, stopped dealing in flour
and decided to concentrate on the sale of textiles. Madam Anima said after the
31st December Coup, she was trading in textiles at Nima in Accra
when Segbawu, who claimed to have received reports on her that she dealt in
smuggled goods and sold her wares above the stipulated control price, followed
her home.
She said after giving warning shots,
Segbawu entered her room, took 140 half-pieces of wax prints, hired a taxi and
took both her and the textiles to the Gondar Barracks. Madam Anima said Segbawu
turned down several pleas by on-lookers to let her go and take the textiles
away. She said he insisted that she was a smuggler and he was going to deal
with her.
She said on reaching the Gondar Barracks,
Segbawu handed her over to the military men and left. It was then that they
started slapping and beating her. Madam Anima said for two weeks she and other
women, who had been detained, were beaten and made to sweep the streets of
Madam Anima said in the course of time
they were taken to the Border Guards Headquarters and one tall soldier slapped
her and literally pulled off her hair from her head. She said she was also
caned till she menstruated prematurely.
"When I was released after two weeks,
my goods were not given to me and I did not see Segbawu again. But I had my
children to feed so I became a porter moving from village to village, carrying
wood and all kinds of things just to make ends meet.
"I had four children, whose father
died so I was alone. At the moment the ages of my children range between 25 and
30 years but they had no education so they are just truck pushers and
hawkers," she said. She said she lived with a chronic headache and partial
deafness due to the slaps and beatings.
Bishop Charles Palmer Buckle said Madam
Anima's case was an example of how Ghanaians maltreated their fellow Ghanaians
and not security personnel maltreating civilians. "It should be clear that
the work of the Commission is to bring to the fore how Ghanaians hurt their
fellow Ghanaians and not highlighting conflicting situations between security
personnel and civilians," he said.
GRi.../
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Rawlings by passed laid down military rules -
Ex-Corporal
Accra (Greater Accra) 13 February 2003-
Ex-Corporal Mike Boafo-Ntifo on Wednesday told the National Reconciliation
Commission (NRC) that Ex-President Jerry John Rawlings on 21 October 1982,
defied laid down rules in the military.
He alleged that Ex-President Rawlings
"by-passed my Platoon Commander and Commanding Officer at Hornuta Border
Guard Post and personally ordered me to stand aside from a parade of Border
Guards and for my room to be searched by six armed soldiers."
Ntifo said in Rawlings' capacity as the
then Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, he should have known that
those orders should have gone through either of the two officers present.
"Rawlings was nothing but a shame to
the Ghana Armed Forces and to the entire country. He should be ashamed of
himself for what he did. I am personally ashamed that this country had such a
person as head of state and President," he said.
In his story to the Commission, Ntifo said
after serving for four years as a Corporal in the Ghana Police Service he
enrolled with the Border Guards and served for 12 years until
He said on that fateful day he was at the
Hornuta Border Post in the Volta Region with his colleagues and their Platoon
Commander, Lt. York Afriyie, when a large number of soldiers came to the post.
Later a helicopter carrying Ex-President
Rawlings landed after flying from the
Ntifo said Rawlings then ordered six of
the armed soldiers he came with to take him (Ntifo) to his room in the barracks
and search him, but nothing illegal was found. He said during that search, the
soldiers led by one Sergeant Sonny Liston Dede, broke open two trunks and took
his personal belongings as well as those of his wife.
"The items they took included 10
half-pieces of cloth, 50,000 cedis from my wife's trunk and four pieces of wax
prints, one kente cloth, a set of napkins and two new bed sheets," he
said. "They also destroyed my two spring mattresses."
Ntifo said he was brought out, put into a
military Land Rover and sent to Gondar Barracks in
At the barracks he was granted audience by
Lt. Colonel John P. Addah, who made him to list the items, which were taken
from his room. At the time Sgt. Dede who personally took the items was nowhere
to be found.
Ntifo said he was taken to the Border
Guard Headquarters and kept in the guardroom till
"I requested to be reposted to
Ntifo said he contacted Sgt. Dede to
return his items to him, but Dede wrote a letter to him saying he collected the
items so that "in case something happened to me he would give them to my
family members".
He said he met with Dede at Madina, near
Ntifo said the warning scared him, so he
fled to
"I, therefore, petitioned the current
President, the Minister of Defence and the Commission for Human Rights and
Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) for redress, but I did not have any response
till this Commission came into being," he said.
Ntifo appealed to the Commission to see to
it that he was given proper pension, saying that when he was dismissed he was
given only 15,000 cedis as 50 per cent of his end of service benefit but he has
not received anything since. He said currently he runs an NGO for the aged. The
members of the Commission assured him of efforts to properly address his case.
GRi.../
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Mice bit my manhood as I was tortured - Witness
Accra (Greater Accra) 13 February 2003-
Alhassan Abubakar, unemployed, on Thursday alleged that in 1985, military men
blindfolded, handcuffed and stripped him naked and made six to mice bite his
manhood.
He said on June 16, 1985, he was on his
normal business as a small-scale importer of motorbikes from Nigeria to Ghana,
when he was picked up by military men at the Aflao border on allegation of
being part of a plot in Kumasi in February 1985 to assassinate Flight
Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings, then Chairman of the Provisional National
Defence Council (PNDC).
He said he was taken to Lieutenant General
Arnold Quainoo, a member of the PNDC, and after the General and one Kwamena had
interrogated him, he ordered that he should be taken to the cells of the Bureau
of National Investigations (BNI).
"I was kept in the BNI cells for two
weeks without being told anything until one Major Lumor led several soldiers to
the cells. They picked me up, blindfolded and handcuffed me and took me to a
place I do not know till date," he said.
Abubakar said he was stripped completely
naked, put in a big water reservoir and several buckets of cold water stinking
with fish poured on him. He said the soldiers told him that he was going to be
"cooked" with cold water until he told the truth. He said he heard
them say "release them, release them" after which about six mice were
released on him in the stinking water.
"The mice targeted my manhood and bit
it as much as they could until I managed to kill five of them. "When the
soldiers saw the dead mice they threatened to release more mice on me and cook
me with hot water but they did not."
He said he was taken to the BNI
Headquarters and later to the Legon Police Station on the orders of Mr Peter
Nanfuri for three days, before he was finally sent to the BNI annex and kept
there till
Abubakar said on
"In my seventh year at Usher Fort, I
developed stomach ulcer so I was sent to Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital for a
surgical operation. "At Korle-Bu, I was handcuffed to my bed and that was
where I eased myself, bathed, ate and did everything with prisons staff on
guard."
He said the nurses complained that the
stench of his toilet at the bedside disturbed other patients but prison
officers did not budge. He said one Rose Kokoroko, a nursing sister at
Korle-Bu, could testify to his story.
Abubakar said while at the hospital, a
sympathizer smuggled an object with a sharp edge to him and he used it to cut
the handcuff. He then escaped through the window at his bedside.
He said he drew a diagram directing the
Prisons staff to
"On my return, Atta arranged separate
meetings between Commander Asase Gyimah and I at the Castle and with Mr Peter
Nanfuri at the BNI Head Office and they both apologised for the past and
promised to assist me in any way possible.
He said he petitioned Ex-President Jerry
John Rawlings through Nanfuri and the matter was referred to Mr Kofi Totobi
Quakyi, then Head of Security, but nothing was done about it until the Rawlings
administration lost power.
Abubakar said he was grateful to God he
did not lose his ability to make children after the mice bit him. He was
detained at age 24 when he had only one child, but now he has three children
and expecting a fourth one.
"When I was in prison, President
Charles Taylor of
Two members of the Commission, Bishop
Palmer Buckle and Maulvi Wahab Adam took Abubakar to a private room in the Old
Parliament House and closely observed the damage done to his manhood by the
mice.
GRi.../
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"Rawlings might not have been aware"-Nana
Ahima
By Alfred Marteye (GRi
Correspondent)
"I realised that during
the revolution, a lot of people did so many bad things in the name of Rawlings
because he was their leader. One Isaac Frimpong alias "red light"
once went to my uncle during my detention and collected 5m cedis from him with
the promise to help get me released from prison which he never did," he
said.
Nana Ahima made this remark
when he narrated his detention and other atrocities that he experienced during
the era of the PNDC. According to him, on
He also gathered that his
wife and children would be killed if he did not report at the Air force base.
He said friends and relative advised him not to go to the Air force base, but
as a family man, he reported himself to the soldiers at Takoradi.
On his arrival, Nana Ahima
said he was dragged out of his car by some soldiers and beaten severely with
the butt of a gun. He said his wife and children were later released at
Nana Ahima said in 1982,
citizens of Takoradi woke up one morning only to see about 20 people including
one Issaka killed and left on the street. He said people in the town remained
in-door until about
Nana Baffour Ahima said that
on
He said he gave his wallet to
Osafo Marfo and asked him to tell his wife about what had happened. Nana Ahima
said he was taken to the BNI office where he waited until
Nana Ahima said in the room,
the BNI officials asked to remove his dress; while removing the dress, he said
he was hit on the back of his head. He said he fell and in the process had a
deep cut on his forehead. He said he was taken to hospital 3 days after the incident.
Nana Ahima he was detained 2 months and all this while he has not seen his wife
and children. He said they were frustrated whenever they attempted to visit
him.
According to Nana Ahima later
in the second month of his detention, he was summoned before the BNI boss,
Peter Nanfuri who asked him if he knew J. H. Mensah. He said he was again taken
back to the BNI cells after the interrogation.
He told the commission that
his detention resulted in the loss his businesses, 3 vehicles and a shipment of
two containers of corned beef that he had order to via Cote d'Ivoire got
tampered with be cause he was not around to see to the clearance of the goods.
Nana Ahima told the commissioned that his mother collapsed and died instantly
when she heard he had been arrested since he was the breadwinner of both the
nuclear and extended family.
When the a member of the
commission asked him why he had not reported any of this to CHRAJ or the
authorities for them to look into the matter, Nana Ahima said the situation during
the PNDC era was not permissive. He said that soldiers of today are more
discipline than those in the PNDC era. He praise government for the
international image it has attained for the country and called on everyone to
help maintain that image and advised President Kufuor to always listen to the
sentiments of the people and plan towards that.
GRi…/
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"I used evidence as toilet roll" -
ex-sergeant
Accra (Greater Accra) 07
February 2003- Ex-police sergeant, Joseph Kwadjo Nuer, on Thursday got members
of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) and others present at the
hearing laughing when he said he had used a document, which could have served
as evidence of his allegations of torture as toilet paper.
He was answering a question
posed by Mrs Sylvia Boye, a member of the Commission, on the whereabouts of a
leave letter he claimed to have received from his boss, one Adenu, after being
tortured and hospitalized by armed military men on the eve of the 4 June 1979
uprising.
"My Lord, in the course
of time, I thought I was never going to have the opportunity for redress and my
economic situation was not the best so I used that letter and other documents
as toilet papers."
He said in recent times
Adenu, his former boss at the Police Striking Force Unit, who gave him the
letter asking him to go on leave for three months, has dissociated himself from
his (Nuer's) torture.
"But I do not have that
letter Adenu wrote and signed to show as evidence of his awareness of my
plight." Nuer told the Commission that on 3 June 1979, he and three
others, Corporal Yeboah, Sergeant Dapah, both drivers and Contable Asubonteng, all
of the Police Striking Force, were detailed to witness a post-mortem on the
body of an armed robber who died in a shootout.
He said they were instructed
to dress in mufti and were given a civilian vehicle with registration number
GZA 8832 to hide their identities. This was because there was information that
a group of armed robbers was going to show up at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital
mortuary to claim the body of their dead colleague.
"When we got to the
mortuary the doctors said for fear of the armed robbers they had postponed the
post-mortem to an unspecified date, so we left and headed back to the office
through the Makola Market area in
Nuer said when they got to
Makola Market, they saw a military vehicle full of armed soldiers and they were
asked to stop. The soldiers then ordered them to come out with their hands up.
He said the soldiers
interrogated them and they disclosed their identity as policemen but the
soldiers did not believe them and started beating them up. "In the
process, my three other colleagues managed to escape and I was left alone with
the soldiers who striped me naked, collected my pistol with eight rounds of
ammunitions and asked me scale a nearby wall."
Nuer said the soldiers told him
that day was his last day on earth and that if he looked back he would be shot
dead. He attempted to look back and a bullet was shot, which brushed his
forehead and he fell.
He said they then took him to
the street and drove their vehicle over his leg and he became unconscious.
"I was revived at the
Nuer said at the time
information had reached his superiors and colleagues that he was dead but they
later got to know he was alive and Adenu, granted him three months leave to
recover.
He said he resumed work and
after a year-and-a-half, his pistol, which the soldiers sized, was retrieved
from an armed robber during an operation at Tesano in
Nuer said one of his
colleagues, Ohene Ansah, was assigned among other things, to investigate the
murder of the three judges and the retired army Major. He said in the course of
Ansah's duty he (Ansah) felt his life was in danger.
"Ansah approached me and
told me he was being trailed so he handed over some documents containing some
evidence that could lead to the arrest of the culprits for safe keeping.”
"The evidence variously named vehicles used and people who were involved
in the plot and murder."
Nuer read portions of the
document Ansah gave him, saying that they were written in Ansah's own
hand-writing and they were the notes of investigation he was carrying out. He
said on
"On my way to Kpedze
around
"They then searched my
car and found a file Ansah gave to me containing some other documents in the
trunk so they arrested me and sent me to Gondar Barracks." He said at the
barracks he was put in a military cell and beaten with a hammer-like weapon.
His head was hit against the wall several times until the soldiers got to know
he was not Ansah before letting him go.
Nuer said when he came out of
the military cells, where he saw blood stains all over the walls, the tyres and
battery of his car had been removed. He went home on foot and later brought
second hand tyres and battery to replace them. "When I reported to my
superiors they did virtually nothing about it."
Nuer said in the course of
time he bought the body of a vehicle from Kokompe market in
"Whilst the case was in
court, former President J. J. Rawlings came on air and announced the names of
49 police personnel including mine having been dismissed," he said.
"I was found guilty of stealing the Justice's car and sentenced to 18 years
in prison."
He said he was taken to
Nsawam and whilst there he was served with his dismissal letter. Nuer said he
appealed against his imprisonment and after six years, eight months his appeal
was upheld and he was released on
He said currently his right
leg, over which the vehicle was driven, is shorter than the left one, adding
that he has developed a waist problem because of that. Nuer said his wife has
divorced him on the ground that he was going mad as a result of the torture.
The members of the Commission
consoled him for the ordeal he went through and urged him to forgive his
persecutors. General Emmanuel Erskine and Maulvi Wahab Adam, both members of
the Commission, advised security officers to desist from carrying sensitive and
highly classified documents on them in town to avoid the danger of being
attacked by interested persons. They also suggested that when security
personnel are on undercover operations, they should carry some form of identity
to avoid being mistaken for anti-social characters.
GRi.../
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Witness still wondering why he was arrested and
tortured
Accra (Greater Accra) 07
February 2003- Ex-Lance Corporal Godwin Wegudi Ayiworoh is still struggling to
understand why he was picked up in 1985 and detained for more than seven years.
Moreover, he is still at a
loss why the Ghana Army has not paid him seven years salary prior to his
discharge from the Armed Forces in 1992. When the National Reconciliation
Commission (NRC), sitting in
Ex-Lance Corporal Ayiworoh
told the Commission that he was detained for seven years at Nsawam Prisons
prior to his discharge from the Service in 1992. However, he was not paid any
salary although he was regarded as a serving soldier for the period he was in
incarceration.
The ex-soldier, then
stationed at the Mortar Regiment at Ho, said on
He said he was driven by one
Brigadier Klutse to
At the BNI, the ex-corporal
said, he was never interrogated, neither was he made to write any statement. He
was sent to a cell where he met the late Tommy Thompson, one time publisher of
the Free Press newspaper, one George Adjei and Seidu Iddrisu.
Ex-Corporal Ayiworoh said at
the BNI, the soldiers used knives to cut the backs of detainees. After four
months detention at the BNI some of the detainees were released, but he and
Seidu were rather handcuffed and sent to Nsawam Prisons, where he spent seven
years.
Ayiworoh said while in prison
a warder named John Attipoe slapped him and in a struggle that ensued, the
warder bit him. Ayiworoh said he together with other prisoners went on hunger
strike, but he collapsed on the fifth day and came around only in the Prisons
Clinic, where he saw that he was being given intravenous infusion.
The Ex-Lance Corporal said he
found it difficult to understand his incarceration and was furious when he
learned that he had been pardoned under an Executive Instrument.
Ayiworoh said he spent more
than 14 years in the Army, but was only given 600,000 cedis as benefit after
petitioning the Ghana Army. He said he is not on pension. Now in his
mid-forties, he said he has neither a wife nor a child.
Setrana said at the BNI
office he was made to sit at the reception from
He said Nanfuri asked him
questions about Amewordeh's business, relationship with some military personnel
and his whereabouts, adding that he had no answers to all these questions.
"I was then brought back
to the reception and made to sit there till
Setrana said at the barracks
he was taken to a dark room in which there was a tall wall beyond which one
could not see and there he was interrogated and tortured by three masked
soldiers.
"They took off my shirt
and vest, tied my hand to a chair and one of the soldiers who was an officer
asked me the same questions Nanfuri asked me whilst the other two whipped my
back with iron rods merciless till blood started oozing from my back."
He said he was kept in a room
where there was light for 24 hours over a period of three and half weeks,
adding that during that period he slept on a hard board.
Setrana said later Captain
Pattington came and asked the soldiers whether they had got any information
from him. He said Captain Pattington was told he did not have answers to the
questions so he ordered them to bring him to his office.
He said when he got to
Pattington's office he was let go with his bruises on his back and an impaired
vision because of the room where there was light permanently. "I never
thought I would be alive to tell my story, but I thank God this government has
made that possible through the NRC," he said.
"Two years ago, I sent a
petition to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ)
and I am still awaiting the result. "Meanwhile my friend who heard of my
arrest and absconded to
Jacob Kwao Baiden, a former
fire officer, on his part told the Commission that he was picked by a group of
soldiers in "
He said at the barracks, the
soldiers shaved him with broken bottles and ordered him into a large room,
which looked like a bonded warehouse, with about 20 people in it. He said the
soldiers asked him to undress.
Baiden said the room looked
very scary with a lot of bullet marks and bloodstains all over the walls, and
he felt very uncomfortable. He said when he asked the soldiers what his offence
was they ordered him to shut up.
Baiden said he was made to
hold his ears and jump many times, whipped with twisted wire and warned not to
shed tears in his pains. Any time he asked about his offence, the soldiers
tortured him more, he said, adding that the beating left a cut on his right
arm.
Baiden said the soldiers made
him roll over the floor, from the morning they picked him till 1200 hours. They
then asked him to jump while holding his male organ. He said he also obliged to
their order to drink his urine.
Baiden said he was very
tired, but the soldiers gave him a cutlass and asked him to weed. He obliged
and weeded till 1700 hours. He was later marched into the room, which looked
like a warehouse and he had to grope to find his shirt.
He said the next morning,
another soldier relieved the first one and he also made him weed. When he asked
for food, he was asked what rights he had to ask a soldier to give him food.
Baiden said he gave 10 cedis
to a soldier to buy him some "waakye", but the soldier brought
neither the food nor the money. Rather he was ordered to chew gravel. He said
he tried but could not chew it.
Baiden said at about 1600
hours, when they were in the large room, he showed his identity card to another
soldier and he told him his case was not serious.
He said on the third day,
another soldier arrived, called his name and ordered him out. He was marched to
a room marked CO, where he met the Welfare Officer of his fire station and
their driver.
Baiden said the Commanding
Officer brought his identity card out, gave it to the Welfare Officer and
apologised to him (Baiden), saying "We're sorry. You're lucky."
He said after his release, he
felt pains when urinating and even urinated blood for some time and sought
treatment at the Korle bu Teaching Hospital. Maulvi Wahab Adam, along with the
other commissioners, expressed sympathy to Baiden for his ordeal and said the
quick response of the welfare officer of the Fire Service to the plight of
their colleague was an example worthy of emulation by organisations.
Baiden requested that
Government should ensure that civilians were not sent to Gondar Barracks.
Madam Susuanna Ohenewah
Korlettey of Santa Maria, who used to deal in second hand clothing, said in
1982, a soldier diverted the course of an Nsawam-bound bus on which she and her
son travelling to El Wak Stadium where they were flogged.
She said the soldiers accused
them of paying above the approved fare. Ohenewah said she developed
hypertension from that traumatic experience and she also stopped her trading.
She said a
Ohenewa, now with four
children, said that her husband died from excessive worry over the loss of the
bus, and she depended on benefactors to take care of her children.
General Emmanuel Erskine, a
commissioner, described the events of the maltreatment of women as a shameful
past and said never should that happen again.
He expressed the hope that
Ohenewah would forgive the perpetrators and look with hope into the future. Dr
Sylvia Awo Mansa Boye, another commissioner, said although there were rumours
of maltreatment during the revolutionary years, Ohenewah's story showed that
they were true.
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Assasie-Gyimah petitions National Reconciliation
Commission
Accra (Greater Accra) 07
February 2003- Naval Captain Assasie-Gyimah (Rtd) on Thursday petitioned the National
Reconciliation Commission (NRC) to give him the opportunity to appear before it
to clear some issues in which witnesses accused him of abusing their human
rights.
He said in a 13-point
petition that he was pleading with the Commission "to give me the
opportunity which I thought was my right to listen to the story of Private
Twumhene, subject him to cross-examination and state my own case for the truth
to be known by all."
Capt. Assasie-Gyimah said the
opportunity extended to E.T. Baba to appear before the Commission during the
previous sitting to face his accuser questioned him and telling his side of the
story should as well extended to him.
He explained; "On the 27
November 2002, I received a letter NRC/14/128 from the Director of
Investigations of National Reconciliation Commission inviting me to report to
the Director to assist in investigations into a matter in which according to
him my name was mentioned.
"I complied with the
request and submitted a written statement to him on either
"It had been my prayer
that the Commission would invite me together with Private Twumhene for him to
narrate my involvement in the alleged abuses of his human rights in my
presence. That would have enabled me to
ask him questions if any in order to establish the truth or otherwise of his
allegations."
He said one Corporal Stanley
Obeng Otchere who appeared before the Commission, as a witness for Private
Twumhene was "the same Otchere I had identified in my earlier statement to
the Commission as one of the soldiers who molested the suspects among whom was
Twumhene."
Assasie-Gyimah said he saved
both Otchere and Twumhene from "the wrath of their soldier colleagues and
I therefore deserve their gratitude rather than vilification from these two
ex-soldiers.
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My patriotism landed me in unlawful detention
In what has been described as the longest
statement made to the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), for close to
two hours, he narrated circumstances that led to his confrontation with the top
hierarchy of the Police, the PNDC and BNI, and his unlawful detentions and
final dismissal from the police service.
He mentioned almost all the IGPs during
that period, Police Commissioners, and also named former President Jerry John
Rawlings, his personal security man and Captain Kojo Tsikata as perpetrators of
his ordeal.
"I was unlawfully detained on two
separate occasions for six months eight days, all on the orders of the Chairman
of the PNDC and former President of Ghana Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings and on
both occasions no specific accusations and charges were given for my
detention," he said.
Alhaji Alidu said after resisting attempts
to frustrate him by several persons in the top hierarchy of the Ghana Police
Service, he was finally given the boot out of the service on grounds of going
public on a smuggling matter without recourse to the Police Public Relation
Department.
He said in 1981 he was the Organiser of
the Police Committee for the Defence of the Revolution (CDR) in Bolgatanga and
at that time, he upheld the virtues of the 31st December Revolution and
therefore mounted an anti-smuggling campaign in that region.
"My campaign was so successful,
smuggling was totally eradicated from that region and I received at least two
high commendation letters from Kugblenu, then Inspector General of Police (IGP)
and later from S. S.Omane, former IGP," he said.
He said in the course of his duty he received
a wireless message inviting him to
Alhaji Alidu said Nanfuri told him, the
castle had ordered his detention although no reason was given for that, adding
that just on that account he was detained for three months eight days.
He said when he protested against his
detention, Nanfuri only made a request for him to be given medical care, as he
developed depression over the three-month detention period.
"After a two week medical care at the
37 Military Hospital, I was brought back to the BNI cells where they asked him
about one Ibrahim,” Alhaji Alidu.
According to him he only got to know
Ibrahim, a Ghanaian exile when he approached him and said he had a letter
signed by Kwamena Ahwoi and copied to Capt. Tsikata, which allowed him entry
into the country but needed assurance of safety.
"I took him to Capt. George Pattinton
to look into his case and that was all," he explained.
Alhaji Alidu said though he was let go, he
was called again two weeks later and questioned about some two vehicles, one of
which he had been using on operational duties.
"I felt frustrated along the line and
I called Nanfuri a stooge of the PNDC in his face and I challenged that
genuineness of the revolution which I had committed my effort to, in dealing
with economic saboteurs and saving the nation several millions of cedis,"
he said.
He said later he sought audience with the then
Director of BNI, Quantson, but he (Quantson) told him that was the kind of
problem the PNDC government was dragging the BNI into and that he was not a
party to it.
Alhaji Alidu said three weeks after his
release-armed soldiers picked him from Bolga to
"Here again I was detained for three
months without questions in the Police Information Room," he said.
He said later he was told that a three-man
investigation team had been set up to investigate him, adding that after his
release he was re-posted from Bolga to Accra to serve in the Panthers unit,
without being told the outcome of the investigation.
Alhaji Alidu said whilst in the Panthers
Unit he was made the Director of Administration and he chanced on a file
titled; "Issues from Upper East" and in that file he saw a document
containing about 15 separate allegations against him on how he was using his
position to amass wealth.
He named Justice Atubuga, a Supreme Court
Judge, then Lawyer Atubuga as one of the main informants. Atubuga whom he said
he had a confrontation earlier had sworn to teach him a lesson.
Apparently, Atubuga defended a smuggler in
court in a wood smuggle case and I asked the prosecutor at the time to object
to his representation as he (Atubuga) was at the time, a member of the
Committee Investigating the case.
Alhaji Alidu said whilst in the Police
Panthers unit he established another anti-smuggling machinery, which busted
several under-invoiced import and export activities and raised at least 38
million cedis for the state in 1985 through fines.
He said in one such anti-smuggling
activity involving one Alhaji Munanga Alla, who was allegedly connected to
Capt. Kojo Tsikata, the smuggler was fined 14 million cedis for smuggling about
a 1,000 bags of sugar.
He said later one Malm at the Customs
Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) reduced the fine to 50,000 cedis.
"I did not understand the reduction
from 14 million to 50,000 so I went to CEPS for explanation and I met the Legal
Officer of CEPS, Pius Austin who told me he was not privy to the deal," he
said adding that "Later the new IGP, Coffie also expressed shock over the
drastic reduction of the fine."
Alhaji Alidu said when his immediate boss,
Mr Dewornu got to know of his investigations into the matter, he became furious
and asked him to make a choice between Central and Eastern regions for
transfer.
"I pleaded to be kept in any station
in
"After several pleas with him fell on
deaf ears I went to press with the smuggling issue for which I was being
transferred." He said later the issue was taken to the Police Disciplinary
Board and I was warned and reprimanded, adding that he however, managed to get
the smuggler arraigned before the regional police tribunal.
Alhaji Alidu said the tribunal, then
headed by one Mr. Justice Agbesi sentenced the smuggler to five years
imprisonment with a fine, but Capt. Tsikata managed to get hold of that docket and
in the final analysis the tribunal was disbanded, Justice Agbesi and myself
were dismissed and the smuggler was let go free.
"In year 2001 when the current
administration took over, I sent a petition to the Commission of Human Rights
and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and they investigated the matter and called
on the IGP, Ernest Owusu Poku to re-instate me, but the police legal department
told CHRAJ they had a case against me in 1993, for which they were going to
prosecute me," he said.
He said he was therefore, asked to direct
his petition to the Police Council, which he has and awaiting response. Gen.
Erskine sympathised with Alidu, adding that it was unfortunate how people could
be victimised in this country for trying to uphold the virtue of honest.
He however, urged Alidu to continue being
honest without fear of favour.
Justice E. K. Amua-Sakyi, Chairman of the
NRC warned that witnesses who are listed for hearing and do not show up would
from this week forfeit their chance of being heard.
He said, "we have about 2,800 cases
to deal with and we are working with a schedule programme and we expect
witnesses to make time and come at the times they are invited otherwise there
is no guarantee that their cases could be postponed."
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Witness tells NRC: "Only one bullet, that's
all!"
Accra (Greater Accra) 06 February 2003-
Ex-Sergeant Abraham Kwaku
Botchwey, formerly of the Armed Forces
Training School, Tamale, on Wednesday told the National Reconciliation
Commission (NRC) that as operatives of the Bureau of National Investigations
(BNI) tortured him, he desperately craved for death and asked them to fire only
one bullet at him to end it all.
The ex-martial arts, military drill and
weapon-handling instructor, said he was lured by his commanding officer,
Lieutenant Colonel Brown and Lieutenant Iddrisu of the Military Intelligence
Unit, to be tortured.
Ex-Sergeant Botchwey said the two men
lured him to
He subsequently spent seven years in incarceration
in different cells. He said as a Christian, he has forgiven Captain George
Pattington, who was then the Commanding Officer of the Commando Unit, one Max
Pobi and all the military people and the commandos that tortured him and asked
them to show a similar gesture of reconciliation.
Led in evidence by Edmund Allotei Mingle,
Ex-Sergeant Botchwey said on
He said at the BNI he was undressed with
only his pants on and marched to a cell where there were civilians, politicians
and soldiers. These detainees told him that they were there for an alleged plot
to assassinate the then Chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council,
Flt. Lt. Jerry Rawlings.
He said the soldiers hit him with the butt
of their guns and as she struggled with them, they handcuffed him from behind,
blindfolded him and threw him into a car. After 45 minutes' drive, ex Sergeant
Botchwey said, he slit open slightly the bandage that was used to blindfold him
and upon familiar sounds and scenes, he realised that they were at Asuature.
He said at Asutuare he was threatened with
death to tell "the truth," else he would be "finished and buried
in one of the trenches". Ex Sergeant Botchwey said later he was then
driven to Legon, and then to the Recce Regiment where one officer ordered one
night that he should be taken out and water poured on him.
He said one Bawa Atalia and Bugri, both
Military Intelligence officers, came again and continued torturing him until he
shouted, "fire only one bullet into me; that's all". He said he told
them that he would rather die than continue to endure the torture.
Ex-Sergeant Botchwey said the soldiers
threatened death, saying, "This is the reason why we were sent to
Ex Sergeant Botchwey said he struggled
with the soldiers, and they used the nozzle of their guns to hit his legs, and
that rendered him very weak.
The ex-sergeant said he was shocked to see
Captain George Pattington, whom he said he had known as a friend, arrive there
together with Max Pobi, and he Botchwey asked Captain Pattington why he was
being tortured.
He said Captain Pattington then asked
those beating him to stop and he left the scene. Ex-Sergeant Botchwey said he
continued to struggle with the soldiers but they eventually overpowered him and
his blood oozed out of his face.
Ex-Sergeant Botchwey said one of the
soldiers hit his head with a gun and he fell unconscious. He said later in the
afternoon the torturing continued, and three days later, he had a swollen face
and was sent to the 37 Military Hospital where one Dr Koranteng sympathised
with him and treated him.
Upon his return, three soldiers at the
BNI, Asase Gyimah, Annor Kumi and Ampadu, forced him to sign a paper,
apparently on his alleged conspiracy to overthrow the PNDC regime. Ex Sergeant
Botchwey said he was later sent to the Ussher Fort Prison and kept in solitary
confinement for six months and later made to join other prisoners.
Ex Sergeant Botchwey said he was in
incarceration until 1987, and when he thought his release had finally come he
was sent to Winneba Cells, and there he met people with sores all around their
body, and prisoners went for about three days without food and no bath for
about one week.
He said he was finally released from
unlawful detention in 1990, and at the time he came out his wife who was forced
out from the barracks divorced him and married another man.
He said he petitioned the Ministry of
Defence to reinstate him, but that was to no avail and was later prevented from
entering the barracks as ex-detainees were declared a threat to national
security.
According to him after 17 years of service
he was paid 2.7 million cedis which was too meagre.
Currently on a pension of 205,000 cedis monthly,
Ex Sergeant Botchwey said he had petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and
Administrative Justice and President Kufuor but had not yet had any reply from
them.
Ex- Corporal Boye Okai, formerly a driver
cum military intelligence officer, who was led in evidence by Mrs Juliana
Amonoo-Neizer, told the Commission that, he was picked by Adambuga, Terkpor,
Braimah and Giwa at the Kotoka International Airport, on 25 May1982 with three
other military intelligence officers just as they were disembarking from the
plane that had brought them back from a peace keeping assignment in Lebanon.
He said they were forced into a pick-up
Vehicle and were driven through an alternative route from the Airport to the
Burma Camp.
Ex- Corporal Boye Okai said as they went
along, the security agents stopped at a bridge and he (Ex- Corporal Okai) and
others were beaten up, amidst slaps that had made him (Okai) to develop a
hearing impairment.
They (those arrested) were made to swim to
and fro for three times in a gutter of plenty water and then driven to the
Ussher Fort Prisons, where he spent a total of five years and 16 days.
The ex soldier, who has five children told
the Commission that after his 18 years of service, he was given 96,000 cedis as
his benefit, and prayed the Commission to get him duly compensated.
He said he was on a monthly pension of
203,000, with a bank charge deduction of 10,000 cedis.
Members of the Commission were unanimous
in expressing sympathy to the ex soldier. General Emmanuel Erskine, a member of
the Commission, and former Commander of United Nations Forces in Lebanon
(UNIFIL) praised the gallantry of Ex -Corporal Okine, and expressed the hope
that "this sort of thing doesn't happen again".
Sitting continues.
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Commission continues public hearings of torture
Accra (Greater Accra) 05 February 2003- Ex
Private Class Three Paul King Asimeng formerly of the Ghana Armed Forces on
Monday told the National Reconciliation Commission, sitting in Accra of his
arrest, unlawful detention, torture and death threats in 1982 by operatives of
the defunct Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) on suspicion of a coup plot to
overthrow that government.
The ex-serviceman, who said he has six
children with his wife and four other issues outside marriage, said his
business as a supplier of electrical and general goods has not been good since
1992, and the education of his children suffered because of the brutalities
meted out to him.
Led in evidence by Edmund Allotei Mingle,
Mr Asimeng, who initially spoke in Twi but later changed to English during cross
examination by the Commissioners told the Commission that he was arrested in
1982 at Kejetia on his return from Togo where he had been in exile, to organise
a funeral for his late father.
Asimeng said he entered the Army in 1963,
went on voluntary retirement after 12 years of service, and travelled to
He said the late Ignatius Kutu Acheampong,
who had been the commanding officer of the Fifth Battalion, when he became Head
of State invited him from Switzerland to work at the Ghana Trade Fair Authority
as Senior Purchasing Officer of the National Co-operative Wholesale Union, with
the task to check massive irregularities in the distribution of "essential
commodities'' by supermarkets.
Asimeng said following the exit of the
Acheampong regime and the arrival of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council
(AFRC), the then Chairman of the Council, Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings, made him
the head of the UNIGOV Vehicle Retrieval Committee.
He said though he admitted that he knew
where the vehicles were he did not have control over them. Asimeng said he
realised that the vehicles that were retrieved were being misused and made a
report to Chairman Rawlings.
Asimeng said he realised later his life
was in danger after the report and so he went into exile in Togo and Nigeria,
where he was engaged in buying and selling of electrical goods on which he made
a lot of returns.
Ex-Private Asimeng who said he joined the
Ghana Democratic Movement in 1987 in Germany to overthrow the government of the
then Provisional National Defence Council, told the Commission that when in
exile in Togo he lost his father and therefore came to Ghana.
He said when he got to Nkawkaw, there was
a crowd of passengers looking for a vehicle to travel to
According to him said when the old man got
off at the Kejetia Market and was about to thank him, two soldiers, one Warrant
Officer Teye Momo and another soldier asked him for a lift, but they would not
accept his excuse that the car was full. They boarded the car and forced him to
drive to the Fourth Battalion, and upon arrival, Teye Momo shouted, "We
have got one of them."
He said Warrant Officer Momo forced open
his brief case in which they found 28,500 dollars, 200,000 CFA, 8,000 Naira and
also some cedis and assorted drinks as well as a pistol magazine with three
bullets.
Ex Private Asimeng said the place was
infested with mosquitoes and the soldiers sprayed some insecticide he was
having on him, he fell unconscious and realised he was in the guardroom when he
came around.
"Not quite long, Teye Momo and the
other soldiers beat me up. They made me eat grass and forced me to drink my own
urine before they would give me water to drink. "They pushed me unto the
wall and fired shots around my head, and asked me to tell the truth. The shots
scared me."
Ex Private Asimeng said Teye Momo later
went to his (Asimeng's) house near Tech Junction, and told his wife that, he,
(Momo) was in
According to the ex-private, Momo and his
men searched his wife's room and when they did not find any pistol they looted
her pieces of cloth. Ex Private Assuming said his detention was reported to
Warrant Officer Frimpong, the Forces Sergeant Major, who later went to
He later found his car in a wreck in a
sugar cane plantation with some fitters working on it. Ex Private Asimeng said
he later went into exile with his three-year-old son, and later joined the
Ghana Democratic Movement, alongside Mr Joseph Henry Mensah, the Senior
Minister.
Sitting continues.
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Former Customs boss narrates ordeal
Accra (Greater Accra) 05 February 2003-
Benjamin Kwadwo Agyare, former
Deputy Controller of the Customs Excise
and Preventive Service (CEPS), Tuesday alleged that his 10 days unlawful
detention in 1988 had rendered him a sickler.
"As I speak now the perpetrators of
my ordeal are going about their duties freely and in good health but I have
been diagnosed with Bronchial Asthma and other incurable diseases for which I
am receiving medical care," he said.
Agyare, said on Monday, September 3, 1988
he was acting as the Controller of Customs and Excise in the absence of his
boss Alhaji Dawuda Otoo when he was arrested for no apparent reason by three
policemen who sent him to the Police Headquarters on the orders of Kofi Gyin,
then Commissioner of Police.
He said he was subsequently detained for
10 days with about 20 other people in one of the extremely small and hot cells
of the Usher Fort Police Station in
"I went into detention looking and
feeling healthy, but whilst there I started sneezing profusely due to the heat
and my inability to sleep for want of sleeping space," he said.
"On my release on
He said he was therefore, sent to the
United States of America where he received treatment for the same disease for
two years, adding that in the process he was diagnosed with other incurable
diseases.
Agyare said he later got to know from a
press conference held by Gyin, a day after my release that I had allegedly sent
CEPS officials to the Aflao border to cause confusion.
He explained that before his boss, Alhaji
Otoo left for
"The postings affected S. T. Malm,
Principal Officer at the Aflao Border, who was asked to move to the
Agyare said Malm did not take the transfer
kindly so he reported the issue to his former classmate, Gyin and all the blame
was shifted on him (Agyare) since at the time he was the acting Controller of
Customs and Excise.
He said based on the wrong impression that
he (Agyare) was out to frustrate Malm, Gyin then unilaterally decided in his
capacity as one of the Secretaries of state to detain him until the Workers
Defence Committee (WDC) of CEPS agitated for his release before he was
released.
"On my release I was taken to the
National Investigation Council (NIC), where the officer in charge said he had
no document, nor evidence concerning why I was brought there and granted me
bail in the sum of 3,000,000 cedis," he said.
He said when he was released he was
prevented from working again so he retired and collected his benefits but was
denied his two years increment, adding that he also demanded that the state pay
for his medical bills home and abroad.
Members of the Commission asked him to
forgive his persecutors and encourage his children to also do the same.
In another development, Daniel Claver
Kwame Poku, a former building contractor said he was also unlawfully detained
for nine months and two weeks on the orders of one Superintendent Opata of the
Ghana Police Service on allegations of being a threat to the PNDC in 1983.
He told the NRC that his BMW car with
registration number AZ 4155 was seized from him by one Major Smith, wrecked and
given back to him only after he had paid about 4,000 cedis as levy on the
vehicle.
Poku said on his return from detention
from the Anomabo prisons cells, together with Kwame Pianim and two others, he
went to his construction site at Ho and discovered that his building equipment
had been stolen.
He said he sold the remaining equipment to
make ends meet, adding that attempts to get other contracts from the State
Housing Corporation proved futile as he was tagged an ex-convict.
"A five bed room house I built on my
lawyer friend's plot of land at Ho has also been taken from me by his family
after his death," he said. "I was only able to manage by God's grace
to educate my children and I pray the Commission to do what ever it can to ease
my suffering."
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Ex-soldier names Nanfuri, Bebli and others as
torturers
Accra (Greater Accra) 05 February 2003-
Ex-private Samuel Twumhene, formerly with the Third Battalion and now a security
officer, Tuesday alleged that Peter Nanfuri, former IGP, Jack Bebli, Commander
Asase-Gyimah, Flying Officers Kojo Lee and Fordjuor submitted him to brutal
torture over a period of eight years on allegations of coup plot against the
Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).
He told the National Reconciliation
Commission (NRC) that between February 1983 and October 1991, he was unlawfully
arrested, tortured with blocks and clubs by men from the military and the
Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) on the suspicion that he was involved in
a coup plot.
Twumhene said the torture rendered him
physically weak with bruises all over his body and blood oozed from his ears He
said the torture was variously inflicted on him on the orders of Peter Nanfuri,
Commander Asase-Gyimah and was carried out by Flying Officers Lee, Fordjuor and
Bebli at different times.
He said on 27 February 1983 he was in
Kumasi when a letter was brought from Accra that he and other officers should
be dismissed for no apparent reason, adding that against the norm, the letter
reached the Officer Commanding, Colonel Seidu Ayoma, without going through the
Brigade Commander.
"We sought redress from the Brigade
Commander but he told us he had no copy of that letter so he referred us to
Twumhene said Col. Seidu went to the
Military headquarters and left before they got there, adding that they followed
up to his house in
He said they later got in touch with
Warrant Officer I Adjei Boadi, a member of the PNDC who assured them that he
was only aware of a letter issued on
"We then decided to return to
Twumhene said in the Airforce guardroom,
about 12 soldiers pounced on them and beat them up mercilessly with anything
they laid hands on, including blocks, clubs, gun barrels and boots.
He said the following day, Commander
Asase-Gyimah came in the company of Lee and Fordjuor to question them about the
alleged coup plot, which they denied knowledge of but were further tortured.
"I was personally separated from the
rest and named the Commander of the coup plotters and I was given slaps from
behind by Lee and Fordjuor until blood oozed from my ears," he said.
"They then tied my neck with water
holes and tightened it to make me confess to the allegation." Twumhene
said later, Commander Asase-Gyimah, Lee and Fordjuor came for three persons,
one Moses Nzoh, Fiti and Sergeant Osei, adding that Fiti was shot wounded in
the belly and was taken to the 37 Military Hospital but Nzoh and Osei have
disappeared till date.
He said he was later taken to the BNI for
questioning and he met Nanfuri and others who charged him with coup attempt
against the PNDC and asked him to write his statement.
"After I written my statement they
took me to the BNI cells and tortured me again till blood oozed from my ears
again and after a period of four months I was sent to the Nsawam prisons, from
where I was occasionally brought to BNI for interrogation and for further
torture".
Twumhene said he and others were later
taken to Nsawam Prisons and on 19 June 1983 some junior military men came there
with guns and set all military detainees free, adding that on their way to
Accra, Jack Bebli and his team of armed military men, met them on the way and
deflated the tyres of their vehicle with gun shots.
"At this point everyone on the
vehicle run for his life, some were shot dead but I was able to convince Bebli
that I was not a soldier and that my name was Boamah instead of Twumhene and he
believed me and spared my life after giving me some slaps and punches," he
said.
He said Bebli then took him to Cantonment
Police Station and kept him there for two weeks, after which Mr. Nanfuri came
and recognised him as Twumhene and sent him back to Nsawam on grounds of his
safety, as soldiers were at the time visiting the various cells and killing all
military prisoners.
Twumhene said he remained in Nsawam prison
for over eight years and lived on either a tin of milk, gari or a cup of
unpalatable porridge a day for the whole period till he was finally released in
October 1991.
"On my release I went to the Burma
Camp and I was given my discharge book, which stated that I had been dismissed
for misconduct and that General Mensah Woode, the then Chief of Defence Staff
(CDS) and member of the PNDC had ordered that I and other ex-military prisoners
should not be paid our entitlements," he said.
"We were declared threats to state
security so I left for
He said he returned from exile in January
2001 and sent petitions to the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), Ministry of Defence
and the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) for the
payment of his entitlements to which he has since not heard anything yet. A
Member of the Commission assured Mr Twumhene of recommendation for proper
redress of his case.
GRi.../
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Refusal to appear before NRC is an offence
Mohammed
Affum of the Public Affairs Secretariat of the NRC said any failure to appear
before the commission will attract a fine of ¢10m or two years imprisonment or
both. He explained that although the commission is not a court, it has the
powers of a High Court and “refusal to appear (before it) is tantamount to
contempt of a High Court.”
He
was answering questions at a forum at Korle Gonno in
The
forum was the first of five for Muslim communities in
Affum
said persons invited before the commission are given 10 days and a reminder
after which they will be subpoenaed on refusal to honour the invitation. He
said holders of vital documents could also be subpoenaed, adding, “the
commission has the power to enter premises for documents needed for its work.”
He
said the National Reconciliation Act, Act 611, stipulates the establishment of
the fund, adding that, “the debate will, among other things, determine whether
contributions should be voluntary or sourced from taxes.”
Affum
said the fund will be similar to the Stadium Disaster Fund and explained that
in other countries where national reconciliation exercises have been held,
bodies, different from the commission, were established to handle the
reparation fund. He said it is necessary to “reopen the wounds of past human
rights violations, because the wounds were not properly healed.”
To
a suggestion from Nii Okai Aryee of the Akweteman branch of the Ghana Muslim
Mission that the entire Ghanaian society should feel ashamed for perpetrating
human rights violations, Affum said the state has accepted responsibility for
the abuses.
He
said the commission is interested in the role of organs such as student bodies,
chiefs, religious organisations, the judiciary and the security agencies in the
abuses. Affum said there were human rights violations following coups d’etat
and explained that the commission has been mandated to look into the “context
within which the violations occurred” and address them, adding that the NRC has
no power to punish perpetrators. “It would rather recommend appropriate
reparations for victims,” he said.
Sheikh Arimiyao Shaibu, Deputy Director of
Islamic Education Unit, referred to personalities involved in reconciliation in
the Qur’an, such as Allah’s reconciliatory act to Adam after he fell, Yusif and
his brothers who sold him into exile after an unsuccessful attempt to kill him,
and the Prophet Mohammed forgiving his torturers on his return from his flight
from Mecca to Madina.
He
entreated Muslims to contribute to the success of the reconciliation exercise
by identifying victims and encouraging them to file their petitions. They
should also come out to tell the truth when invited.
Alhai
Alhassan Abdulai, Project Coordinator, Ghana Civil Society on Reconciliation,
who chaired the forum, said the aim of the exercise is to engage the nation in
deep reflection. – Daily Graphic
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Nanfuri handed me over for torture - Ex-soldier
Accra (Greater Accra) 31
January 2003- Ex-Corporal Emmanuel Dagban Sawundi, now a security officer at
the Kotoka International Airport, Thursday alleged that Peter Nanfuri, former
IGP, handed him over to masked men for torture in 1985, when he (Nanfuri) was
the Director of the Bureau for National Investigations (BNI).
Sawundi showed members of the
Commission a number of scars on various parts of his body as evidence of severe
torture meted out to him on the orders of Nanfuri, to compel him to admit to
conniving with some military men to assassinate the Chairman of the Provisional
National Defence Council (PNDC) and some other statesmen at that time.
At least three members of the
Commission left their seats and moved closer to Sawundi to have a close look at
his left toe nail, which he said was removed with pliers, a deep cut on his
thigh, scars at his back as a result of whips with wires and another scar on
his thigh created with a hot iron.
He also took out his
artificial teeth and showed to the Commission, saying that out of the torture
he lost his natural set of teeth. Sawundi said in addition to the torture, he
was also dismissed unlawfully from the military on grounds of misconduct and
was unlawfully detained at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison for seven years
and seven months.
Narrating circumstances that
led to his misfortune, Sawundi said he was working in his capacity as a member of
4th Battalion keeping guard at Kumasi Military Barracks on 2 February 1985,
when at 1900 hours he and his colleagues heard gun shots from the residence of
the then Brigade Commander.
"The gun shot came from
the residence of the brigade commander, one George Pattinton, through the
Kumasi City Hotel area to the quarter guard, where we were so we became alert
to reply," he said.
"The brigade commander
then came and alerted us of some dissidents involved in the shootout in which
two military men were shot and wounded." He said just when they were
alerted a vehicle full of armed junior military staff came from where the
gunshots had come, advanced towards them and they stopped the vehicle, disarmed
the soldiers and asked the driver to move the vehicle away.
Sawundi said after that
incident the Brigade Commander called a durbar and asked all Yeboahs, Bawas and
Botchweys, adding that those who had those names were all sent to
He said on
"At the guardroom I was
interrogated and later sent to my house for a search, but nothing was
found," he said. "Later I was sent to
Sawundi said from the Castle
one Warrant Officer Tetteh ordered that he should be taken to the BNI
headquarters, where he Tetteh said he would be much safer, adding that at the
BNI, a four-member panel made up of Nanfuri, Asaase Gyimah, one Ampadu and one
Annor Kumi, interrogated him about his involvement with some military officers
suspected as plotting assassinations of statesmen.
He said he was asked about
one Christian Manu, who used to be his course mate, one Major Sulemana and one
General Aminu, all of whom he knew as his superiors but had nothing private to
do with.
"My statement was not
taken and Nanfuri asked me to co-operate or else he would hand me over to my
own men to torture me, but I did not have anything more to say because I had
told them the truth already," he said.
Sawundi said he was sent back
to the BNI cells and later that night some masked men came, blindfolded and
handcuffed him and took him in a vehicle with other detainees to an unknown
place where they were severely tortured for days, still blindfolded.
"We were whipped with
wires, booted with military boots and starved for days without food and
water," he said. "When we cried for water, they poured the water on
our heads but refused to give us some to drink."
He said after three months of
torture at the BNI one Dr. Koranteng from the Police Hospital attended to him
and pleaded that he should not to be tortured further, adding that on that
account he was invited to meet Nanfuri for the second time and later moved out
of BNI with others, and they were promised that they were being taken to a
hotel.
"We headed towards
Sawundi said on his return
from cells he reported at the Kumasi Barracks and asked to be re-instated but
the officer in charge, one Major, told him he did not know him and had no
record on his service with the military.
He said he went to the
records office in the barracks and found out that his file had been marked with
red ink signifying dismissal on grounds of misconduct on
"I therefore petitioned
the then Chief of Defence Staff for my pension benefits and he approved it on
humanitarian grounds and paid me an amount a little over 1m cedis covering my
salaries from February 1985 to June 1992 as a lance corporal, although I was
promoted to Corporal before that unlawful dismissal," he said.
Sawundi said during his
unlawful detention his wife was involved in two separate accidents during her
visit to him in prisons and that has resulted in the deformity of her hand and
rendered her incapacitated.
He said his only son he had
with another woman is also currently a truck pusher at
Members of the Commission
sympathised with Sawundi and asked him to forgive his persecutors. General
Erskine said it was a shame that military men could treat their colleague in
the way Sawundi was treated, whilst Mrs. Sylvia Boye wondered what sort of
training such military men received to make them so inhuman and wicked.
GRi.../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 31
January 2003- Togbe Satsimadza Afari II, Divisional Chief in the Klikor
Traditional area, on Thursday wept before the National Reconciliation
Commission (NRC) when he was
asked to tell the Commission what effects his unlawful detention, torture and
exile during the Provisional National
Defence Council (PNDC) era
had had on him.
Togbe Afari told the
Commission that his unlawful detention, torture and the sale of his property
while he was in exile in
Literally shivering and
wiping tears with his handkerchief, he said, "the treat given to me by
ex-president Jerry John Rawlings, former IGP, C. K. Dewornu, and his cousin
Jerry Doe has affected me a lot."
Led by counsel for the NRC
Togbe Afari, known in private life as Christian Afaglo, told the Commission
that in 1970 he resigned from the military and established the Ham Group of
Companies, made of seven separate outfits, including a school, a hotel, a
fishing company between Klikor, Tema and Accra.
He said in 1990 one Eugenia
Kumassah came to him to assist her to obtain cement from the Ministry of Works
and Housing to construct a nursery for the 31st December Women's Movement (DWM)
at Klikor, and he obliged.
Togbe Afari said days after that,
he heard his name on the radio that he was wanted at the Gondar Barracks and he
went. He said when he arrived, he was directed to Dewornu to be told his
offence.
"I called Dewornu on
phone but he directed me to Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, former First Lady
who asked four armed soldiers to send me to the Castle." He said he was at
the Castle from morning till 1830 hours but was told nothing, so he left and
went home to Klikor.
Around 0200 hours the
following dawn soldiers came to his house fired warning shots and took him, his
brother and his ex-wife in his own car and drove them towards
"At the Castle I met
ex-president Rawlings and he personally asked soldiers to shave me completely
and torture me more, which they did in the
He said he was forced to
admit that he acquired an X-ray machine and some drugs illegally and sold them
to one Dr Nkansah and also acquired some cement illegally in the name of the
DWM, but he refused.
Togbe Afari said when he
refused to admit to the allegations against him, he was tortured again till he
urinated on himself and his anus started bleeding. He was then sent to the
He said at the hospital
soldiers kept visiting and threatening him. On
"On hearing this, I
called my family from the hospital phone to come and pick me up that
night," he said. "That night my son came and parked my car behind the
surgical Ward and I sneaked out of my ward with the excuse that I was
exercising my body and I escaped to
He said in 1992 he heard in
He said he made attempts to
come back to
"Since I returned I have
had a lot of problems with accommodation. The people of Klikor, where Dewornu
and his cousin Jerry Doe hail from, have sent letters to the government to
arrest me and are calling me a criminal," he said.
He said at the moment the
post office, schools and a petrol filling station he built in his hometown are
still being used, but no money is paid to him. Most of his children have now
become street kids in Dansoman Accra, he added.
Members of the Commission
expressed their sympathy with him and assured him that the necessary
recommendation will be made for redress.
GRi.../
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E. T. Mensah ordered my torture
Accra (Greater
Accra) 30 January 2003- George Philip Okine, former Principal Revenue Collector
of the Accra City Council (ACC), now Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), on Wednesday
alleged that Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, former Youth and Sports Minister, ordered
his torture in 1985.
He told the
National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) that he was arrested by soldiers on
three occasions and sent to the Castle and
Narrating the
incidents that led to his arrest and torture, Okine who constantly repeated
that he was popularly known as "Baby Okine", said he worked for 31
years with the ACC as Principal Revenue Officer in charge of the day-to-day
revenue collection in the markets, stores, from hawkers and others within the
He said he
personally went on routine checks to ensure that revenue was being effectively
mobilised. Okine said reports reached him on one of his routine checks that
some five women, popularly known then as the fearsome five, never reported to
work until late in the month when they came and collected their salaries.
Baby Okine said
in that particular month they only came to work for three days and so he
ordered that their salaries should be withheld. "I invited them into my
office and told them of my intention to pay them for only the three days they
reported to work," he said. "They did not apologise but rather
reported me to my boss, E. T. Mensah."
He said he was
invited to explain why he had withheld the salaries of the fearsome five,
adding that he was let go after his explanation. Okine said after a few days he
was in his office when four soldiers came and picked him up, molested and
humiliated him before his subordinates and superiors and took him to the
"I was told
by the soldiers that my boss, E. T. Mensah ordered my arrest and torture,"
he said. "I was released only after one of the soldiers identified me as
the junior brother of Major Seth Okine."
Okine said on his
return he returned to post but on consultation with his family and friends he
asked for voluntary retirement in November 1986. He said one month before the
letter of approval of his retirement came in April 1987, he was picked up on
He said at the
Castle his clothes and shoes were removed, an amount of 960 cedis taken from
him and he was shaved, adding that he was kept there for at least three days
before being released.
"After that
I was picked up again to the Cantonment Police Station and detained there for
three weeks for no apparent reason. All I was told was that my arrest was
ordered by E. T. Mensah," he said.
Okine said he has
retired from ACC and has since been receiving his pension benefits of a little
over 250,000 cedis every month. Madam Vera Kwarley Quartey, a former staff of
the ACC, corroborated the story of Mr Okine saying that he (Mr Okine) was her
boss and she witnessed the arrest, molestation and unlawful detention.
GRi.../
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1963 bomb blast revisited at Reconciliation Commission
Madam
Elizabeth Asantewa, 55, told the Commission that she lost one of her legs
through a bomb blast during a march past at the Accra Sport Stadium in 1963.
She said she was 15 years and a member of the Young Pioneers founded by
Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, then President of Ghana. The blast occurred right in
front of the podium where the President took the salute.
"I
was admitted at the 37 Military Hospital and the then First Lady Madam Fathia
Nkrumah brought me a present after which the late President visited me in the
hospital and promised to build a house for me, buy me a car and take care of my
medical bills," she said.
Madam
Asantewa said her left leg, which was badly damaged, was amputated and she was
sent to
Madam
Asantewa said when the General Kutu Acheampong's government came into power she
was taken back to London for treatment and assured of efforts to build the
house and buy the car for her. ''It remained a promise until the Rawlings
government came and took it up. I was given to one Major Smith to provide
everything for me and a team was sent to my hometown to acquire the land and
start the project but it has never materialised till date."
GRi…/
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Ex-cop before Reconciliation Commission
The former police officer, a Mechanical
Engineer told the Commission of his unlawful dismissal from the Service in
1983, accused of inefficiency. He said the accusation was a ploy to get him out
of the Service because he had established, and been in direct supervision of a
number of Police workshops in
"I entered the Service with a rank of
Constable Class One in 1962, and rose to the position of Chief Superintendent,
and for the 21 years that I worked with the Service, I was never brought before
any disciplinary committee for any form of negligence, Okyere said.
He said under police regulations, an
officer had to appear before a disciplinary board and had the chance to explain
his position on an accusation before a premature retirement or dismissal is
effected but that had never happened to him before he was dismissed on
The audience, including some of the
commissioners fanned themselves with sheets of paper to cool themselves from the
heat in the hall, as the ex-cop narrated unsuccessful attempts he made to seek
redress from several quarters.
Okyere said his name was included in a
list of names of police officers mentioned on the national radio as having
being dismissed or retired on
He said as he waited for an official
letter to confirm his dismissal from the Police Headquarters, a wireless
message from the Head quarters, again listed him as one of the affected police
officers.
He said he first appealed to the
reconstituted Police Council, chaired by Justice Daniel Francis Annan, but had
no reply. Okyere said he then petitioned the Ombudsman, seeking to know what
actually went wrong and the re-instatement, but the Ombudsman said it had no
jurisdiction over such cases.
He said he later went to the Police
Headquarters for his gratuity, but was not allowed to enter and a lady
collected his letter and asked him to come after a fortnight only to be given
an amount of ¢50,000.
The ex-police officer said he refused an
official order to join the Workers Revolutionary Council, later christened
Workers Defence Council (WDC), and suspected strongly that, junior officers in
that revolutionary organ masterminded his premature exit from the Police Service.
He said although he got monthly pension,
he felt cheated by his dismissal, and if he had been in the Service, he would
have been due for retirement in the year 2000. He said he lost everything, and
was thrown out of his bungalow, in addition to selling all his possessions,
Life, he said, was very difficult with him
and he could not educate the last two of his eight children to the secondary
school. Okyere said he applied and was engaged by the Ashanti Regional
Development Corporation, but "the work was not promising", so he left
and entered into farming.
He said his attempts to raise loans from
the banks to engage in large-scale farming had been unsuccessful because he was
not having enough money to open accounts with them.
Another complainant, sixty-seven year old
Alexander Saka Ansong, who used to be a building contractor with the Workers
Brigade told the Commission of his demotion, with a payment of half of his
salary, and subsequent dismissal without the necessary entitlements paid to
him. He said he was not in for any compensation, but "to voice his pain
out", for government officials and organisations to handle dismissals and
demotions with care.
GRi.../
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Woman loses voice through torture
Accra (Greater Accra) 29 January 2003-
Madam Elizabeth Adongo, unemployed, on Tuesday told the National Reconciliation
Commission (NRC) that she lost a job as a teacher after she had lost her voice
as a result of seven months of torture by a police, military and Bureau of
National Investigation (BNI) officers in 1985.
Madam Adongo, a native of Tamale, who
spoke with much difficulty, as she had to literally strain her voice to be
heard, also had difficulty turning her neck to look in the direction of counsel
for the NRC who led her to give evidence.
She also told the Commission that she had
difficulty hearing clearly, adding that she was still undergoing medication at
the 37 Military Hospital, where she has been told that it would only take a
miracle for her voice to become normal again.
In her statement to the Commission she
said sometime in 1985 she was at her home at Tamale with her mother when news
got to them that her brother, John Adongo had been admitted to the 37 Military
Hospital in Accra.
She said her mother could not come so she
bought some items for her to bring to the brother in the hospital. On her
arrival at the hospital she was refused entry but the items were collected from
her to be given to her brother.
"I then returned to Tamale and a few
months later a certain man came to my home and said he had a parcel for me so I
followed him to where he said the parcel was. "On our way we passed
through the BNI office in Tamale where I was given a seat and the man entered
the office and returned to me."
She said the man then asked her to follow
him to where the parcel was, but on their way seven policemen with guns
surrounded her and the man disappeared. Madam Adongo said the policemen took
her to the Tamale Charge office where she was literally pushed into the male
cells and kept there for a night, adding that whilst there some of the
detainees molested her and attempted to sexually abuse her.
She said from the Charge office she was
taken to the Tamale Prisons where she spent another night and then sent to the
airport and flown to
"From the BNI office, I was moved to
and fro between the BNI cells and the Legon Police Station cells for a period
of seven months and some weeks and during this period I was molested and
interrogated about the whereabouts of my brother, which I did not know,"
she said,
Madam Adongo said at the BNI office, she
was made to fill a form and put in a small cell where she could not see
anything, adding that for over a week she was starved, and not allowed to bath
or change clothes.
"Anytime I requested for anything
they shut me down by either shouting on me or hitting me with the barrel of the
gun," she said. "At a point the policemen at the Legon Police Station
made sexual advances at me and when I refused they used my refusal as an excuse
to molest me more."
She said in the course of time I was
brought before a 12-member panel made up of men and women who questioned him
about my brother. She said he told them she was not allowed to see him at the
hospital and had since not heard from him.
Madam Adongo said one night she was at the
Legon Police cells when Peter Nanfuri, then Director of BNI, called for her and
apologised to her for the torture she had gone through. She said she was then
sent back to Tamale on a State Transport bus and has since then been receiving
medical care regularly at the 37 Military Hospital for her throat, neck and
ears without support from anybody.
"I used to teach in a school at Nwani
in Bolga but due to the loss of my voice I have lost my job and currently I am
unemployed," she told the Commission.
In another case, Madam Elizabeth Asantewa,
55, told the Commission that she lost one of her legs through a bomb blast
during a march past at the Accra Sport Stadium in 1963.
She said she was 15 and a member of the Young
Pioneers founded by Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, then President of Ghana, adding
that the blast occurred right in front of the podium where the president took
the salute.
"I was admitted at the 37 Military
Hospital and the then First Lady Madam Fathia Nkrumah brought me a present
after which the late president visited me in the hospital and promised to build
a house for me, buy me a car and take care of my medical bills," she said.
Madam Asantewa said her left leg, which
was badly damaged, was amputated and she was sent to
Madam Asantewa said when the General Kutu
Acheampong's government came into power she was taken back to London for
treatment and assured of efforts to build the house and buy the car for her.
"It remained a promise until the
Rawlings government came and took it up," she said. "I was given to
one Major Smith to provide everything for me and a team was sent to my hometown
to acquire the land and start the project but it has never materialised till
date."
Edward Yeboah Abrokwah, an ex-Police
Corporal, now a farmer and father of eight children, also told the Commission
about his unlawful dismissal from the police service in 1980 without any
offence.
He said he had sent several petitions to
subsequent government, IGPs, Ministers of the Interior, Chairmen of Police
Council and Special Tribunals for redress, but all to no avail.
Abrokwah said as a result of his
dismissal, two of his 10 children died out of sickness. "I plead with the
Commission to ensure that I am either reinstated into the police service or I
receive my pension benefit to be able to make ends meet."
GRi.../
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Case of judges’ murder for Reconciliation Commission
Credible
evidence available to The Daily Dispatch indicates that representatives of the
families of the four will petition the NRC between now and the next two weeks
to try to get answers to a number of unanswered questions.
These
range from the reactions of ex-President Jerry Rawlings and his wife, Nana
Konadu, the confession of the late Joachim Amartey Kwei on two occasions at the
Chapel in the prisons and when tied to the stake, minutes before his execution.
The
four who were murdered were Justice K.A. Agyepong, S.A. Sarkodie; Cecilia
Koranteng-Addo and Major Sam K. Acquah (rtd). Those tried, convicted and
sentenced to death were Amartey Kwei, L/Cpl S.K. Amedeka, L/Cpl Micheal Senya,
Johnny Dzandu and Tony Tekpor. Amedeka was tried in absentia and to date,
remains a fugitive from justice.
Proceedings
of the trial, as in George Agyekum’s book, The Judges Murder Trial of
1993, for example, reveal that before former President Rawlings’ broadcast to
the nation on
Coincidentally,
some of the persons who were present when Rawlings was informed about the
identity of the kidnappers on 2 July 1982 are alive and are prepared to face the
former President at the NRC should the need arise. – The Dispatch
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Pensioner petition NRC for increase in salary
Accra (Greater Accra) 24 January 2003-
Alexander Samuel Abbia-Kwakye, a former security guard at the Flagstaff House
on Wednesday petitioned the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), sitting
in Accra, for an increase in his monthly pension from the present 169,000
cedis.
He told the Commission that at best his
unlawful arrest and detention for nine months, following the military coup in
1966 that ousted Kwame Nkrumah's Convention People's Party (CPP) reformed him
into a more religious person who does not play with his church activities.
“Those hard experiences and prison life
transformed me into a new creation. I've been a new creation since then. I
don't play with my church activities anymore,” Abbia- Kwakye said when the
Commission asked what impact torture and prison life had on him.
After his narration, the Most Revered
Charles Palmer-Buckle, a member of the Commission wished Abbia-Kwakye, who
turned 72 on
Abbia-Kwakye, told the Commission that on
25 February the day after Afrifa and his men ousted the CPP in 1966, one army
officer by the name Zaleringu, in-charge of the Army Guard Regiment collected
all guns from all the security men including their personal items.
Abbia-Kwakye said they were then taken to
the Burma Camp, and kept there till the following morning, and sent to the
Police Headquarters at about 0800. "Later the soldiers made us lie
straight on the ground facing the sun, and also sprayed hot tea into our eyes.
Because of the beatings, one is forced to urinate on himself in the open."
Abbia-Kwakye said they stayed at the
Police Headquarters for four days before they were sent to the Nsawam Prisons,
where they spent nine months. He said most of the detainees had since died when
they were released on
General Emmanuel Erskine, a member of the
Commission, said those who died on duty after the
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I was tortured till I forgot my name - Hammah
He said his
unlawful detention was because of a false accusation of financing a coup plot
against the NRC led by the late General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong. Hammah said
in 1973, he returned to
He said the book
sold like hot cake and as a result he raised money, some of which he decided to
invest in the cattle rearing business. He said that was then the most lucrative
business and was mainly in the hands of soldiers.
Hammah said he
was fortunate to get in touch with a Colonel who connected him to a General who
offered to get him the cattle. He said he paid 56,000 cedis, which at the time
could buy 12 two-bedroom flats.
“In the course of
time a meeting was arranged between me and the General who was a military
officer at the
He said the
soldiers took him in a military vehicle to the guard room at the military
barracks where he was subjected to various forms of torture, including slaps,
kicks in the stomach for several hours before being told the reason for his
arrest.
Apparently, the
money he gave to the General for the cattle to be bought for him had been
suspected as money given to stage a coup against the Acheampong government. He
said he denied any knowledge of a coup, but his denial was not taken.
Hammah said he
was taken to the Special Branch in the military barracks and was subjected to
“mechanical torture” by faceless soldiers who hid in the dark and issued death
threats and inflicted physical brutalities on him.
“I was kept in
that guard room on the bare floor for two weeks, without being able to walk.
Later they asked me whether Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia gave me money to sponsor a
coup on his behalf and I answered in the negative.
“I explained to
them that I was a writer and the money I had was proceeds from the sales of my
best selling publication, “Farewell Africa" and another publication,
“Universal Encyclopaedia.”
Hammah said he was
subjected to hours of interrogation, between 0800 hours and 2000 hours everyday
until one day one Buckman, then Chief of Security in the Acheampong regime,
believed his story when he (Hammah) showed him (Buckman) documents to back his
claim.
“It was around
that time that I had even forgotten my name and Buckman asked me to recite the
English alphabets three times, after which I remembered my name,” he said.
"At that time, I had been in custody and tortured for six months."
He said for two
months he slept on the bare floor without mattress and he developed health
problems. Hammah said he was arraigned before a military tribunal on charges of
attempted coup.
Hammah said
anytime he was taken to the tribunal, the soldiers would dress him up to hide
all evidence of torture and they also forced him to write and sign statements
to the effect that they treated him nicely.
“I was charged
with the offence and sentenced to death by firing squad on my 37th birthday. I
was then taken to the condemned cells at the Nsawam Prisons where I stayed for
at least four months without seeing anybody.
“All my
properties in
He said he was
later moved to join the other prisoners, where he used the same plates, spoons
and cups with tuberculosis and leprosy patients. Hammah said he had to live
with smoke from
He said on
various occasions and for various reasons he was moved from one cell to the
other and he had to survive mosquito-infested cells and other cells where he
had to stand naked throughout the night.
He said in 1982
when the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) led by Flt. Lt. Jerry John
Rawlings, overthrew the military regime, they passed a decree of free and
absolute unconditional pardon for all political prisoners.
“Then I expected
my money to be returned to me at the value prevailing at that time, but that
was not done,” he said. Hammah said during the Provisional National Defence
Council (PNDC) regime, he suffered a similar fate when he was accused of
attempted coup with eight military men.
“My
brotherly-in-law had completed his naval training in the
He said he was
arrested again and kept in police custody for at least two weeks before being
released, adding that after his release he received several calls from an
unidentified soldier who threatened to kill him.
Hammah said
during that period he was appointed Director of Education of the Trades Union
Congress. He established the Ghana Labour Institute and founded and led the
Ghana Democratic Party.
He said after his
release, the PNDC government sent a circular to all airports and foreign
missions around the world that he was a dangerous fugitive and should not be
allowed into any country.
“Up till today
those false records of my past still remain in the security computers of this
country some foreign missions and it is ruining me and making it difficult for me
to travel.” “Recently I was invited by President Olusegun Obasanjo of
Hammah appealed
to the NRC to impress upon the present government to ensure that the false
records about him were removed from the security computers and for a circular
to be sent to the foreign missions and airports to allow him to travel.
He said he has
also sent a petition to President John Kufuor asking for his money, which was
declared forfeited to the state, at the current value. “My money has been in
the state coffers since 1973 and I need it now more than ever,” he said.
Asked why he did
not ask for the money to be returned to him during the NDC era, since both the
AFRC and the NDC had the same person at the helm of affairs, he responded: “I
was busy doing business then, now I am HIPC so I need my money.”
Rev. Father
Palmer-Buckle, a member of the Commission urged Hammah to make use of the
Commission's counselling service as a way of dealing with the psychological
scars of his painful experience. He assured him that the Commission would
further investigate his statements and make appropriate recommendations for
redress.
GRi.../
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Victim of torture says he developed hearing problems
Accra (Greater Accra) 21
January 2003 - Peter Ntow, unemployed, on Tuesday told the National
Reconciliation Commission (NRC) that he has a problem hearing properly due to
torture by some soldiers in 1982 under the Provisional National Defence Council
(PNDC) Regime.
He said in March 1982 he was
in the Mallam Ata market one Saturday selling materials and underwear when a
lady led four gentlemen to him to buy three yards each of four different
materials and some underwear.
Ntow, who spoke Twi, and was
led in evidence by Edward Allotei Mingle, Counsel for the Commission, said
later that afternoon, the lady and the four gentlemen returned in the company
of four soldiers and he was made to pack his goods, carry them on his head
through the market to a waiting pick-up.
"I was then taken to the
gate of a storey building behind the
Ntow said a young girl came
and told him that the lady who left the goods had sent her to collect them on
her behalf so he gave them to her and decided to wait for his money. Ntow said
the lady returned to ask for her goods and when she was told that a young girl had
collected them on her behalf she denied sending the girl and there was an
argument. "The soldiers around took advantage of the situation and slapped
me till I hit my head to a wall and fell down," he said. "They then
lifted me and gave me a seat to rest, before letting me go without my
money."
Ntow said he subsequently
returned to the place for his money but never met any of the people who
collected his goods. He said after two weeks of fruitlessly chasing his money,
he decided to take the remainder of the goods in his house to the market to
sell. On his way to the market some teachers at a nearby school invited him to
buy some of his goods.
"Whilst selling to the
teachers some soldiers came around and accused me of selling in the open which was
prohibited, so they arrested me and took me home to search my room". He
said the soldiers found his children's mat under his bed and concluded that he
had hoarded goods on the mat under the bed. According to him, he denied hiding
any goods but the soldiers again gave him slaps till he hit his head on the
wardrobe and fell down before they left.
He said his face became
swollen and he massaged it with hot water and robb ointment. However, after
about two years he started having some sensations in his head and he reported
his condition to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. "From Korle-Bu I was
referred to the 37 Military Hospital where the doctor told me that my left ear
was damaged and it would be difficult for me to hear properly."
Ntow said though the doctor
did not say what specifically caused the hearing problem, he came to the
Commission because he believed that the slaps and hitting his head against the
wall and wardrobe must be the cause. He said he incurred some medical cost in
attempts to treat the hearing problem and had receipts from 37 Military
Hospital to show.
Justice E.K. Amua-Sekyi,
Chairman of the Commission, asked Ntow to submit the receipts to the Commission
on Wednesday and assured him that the Commission would make appropriate
recommendations for redress.
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Reconciliation witness stuns house with emotional
delivery
The scrap dealer’s narration
was meticulous, punctuated with exact dates, easy mentioning of names of
personalities, places and events, along with legal references and quotation of
military decrees that kept the floor dead silent as the Commissioners, the
legal officers, pressmen and the public listened with rapt attention to his
bizarre story of deception, arrests, unlawful trial, and imprisonment without
warrant.
The audience applauded the
bravado of Badasu who complained of having been wrongly arrested for subversion
in 1973, and accused by his extended family of being responsible for the death
of his parents.
"My imprisonment has
caused the death of my mother. She fell into a coma after my arrest, and died a
few days later. My father went on hunger strike and died later. My family is
accusing me that I caused the death of my parents. I am a Christian; I've
forgiven those who wronged me. I've nothing to do with them. The problem is now
between my self and my family; how they will accept me back into the
family."
He appealed to the Government
of Ghana, through the Commission to get him enrolled with the Ghana Police
Central Band to develop his talents in music to sing in praise of God.
He wished that after training
with the Police Band, he would be allowed to stage a performance at the
National Theatre to publicly sing to declare his gratitude to God for His
sustenance during his unlawful arrest, detention at various places and
incarceration at the Nsawam Prisons.
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Victims testifying before NRC lauded
Primate S.K. Adofo, Chief Patron of the
General Council for Pentecostal Churches, described the gesture as a prudent
decision that should be emulated by those yet to testify at the commission.
Primate Adofo made the commendation when
he inaugurated the Ashanti Region branch of the General Council for Pentecostal
Churches, Ghana, on Sunday. The 15-member Executive of the Ashanti Region
Branch of the Council has Prophet M.A. Appiah, Founder of the Peace and
Foundation Church, as Chairman.
The General Council for Pentecostal
Churches is the umbrella body of independent indigenous African churches in the
country. Primate Adofo, Head of the Brotherhood Church, said even though
compensation was important in the reconciliation exercise, “placing too much
premium on it could undermine the objective for which the NRC was set up”.
“Compensation packages could follow only
when victims of atrocities and perpetrators of such atrocities genuinely smoke
the peace pipe after presentation of their cases before the Commission.”
Rev James Yaw Ahinkora, National
Vice-Chairman of the Council, said the Council was not out to undermine
progress of the churches but instead monitor their activities to ensure that
they conformed to the teachings of Christ.
Rev Ahenkora said the absence of such a
Council in the past paved the way for most independent churches to operate in a
manner that cast a slur on the image of the Christian faith.
Nana Osei Afriyie, Assemblyman for South
Suntreso Electoral Area, urged the Council to evolve programmes that would
enable them to enlighten member churches of the council on national issues.
GRi.../
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Minority commends Reconciliation Commission, but…
Accra (Greater Accra) 21
January 2003 - Alban Bagbin, the Minority Leader in Parliament, has praised the
proceedings of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) so far but said it
should do more to erase the impression that it is a political tool of
government.
He was giving his impression
about the work of the NRC so far in an interview with The Evening News
in Accra. Bagbin said, “so far, witnesses appearing before the commission are living
up to expectation but sometimes they make allegations that cannot stand
rigorous cross-examination.
He said even though the
commission had had an objective to find out the truth, it should be able to
erase the perception that it would declare a witness who testified before it a
bad person. Bagbin said even though by word and deed, members of the commission
were doing the best to assuage the anger and pain of the injured, they seemed
to be over looking the search for the truth.
He said an important function
under Section 3(I) of the NRC Act required the commission to establish the
truth and to help set historical records straight. He cited the commission’s
hearing last week between B.T. Baba, the Director of the Ghana Prisons Service
and Rexford Ohemeng, an ex-detainee and said the truth did not come out clearly
on the alleged torture.
Bagbin said counsel for the
victim should have been allowed to subject Baba to rigorous cross-examination
to come out with the truth. He advised that the commission should do a detailed
credible work since Ghanaians might not get such an opportunity again. “The
recommendation and further action of the commission should be built on a very
solid and credible record,” he said.
Mr Bagbin said he was still
sceptical about the outcome of the hearings of the commission, saying the
ultimate aim of reconciling the nation might not be achieved. He said the
entire exercise could only be described as a step towards achieving
reconciliation, as comprehensive reconciliation would entail more than that.
The Minority Leader said
since the idea of reconciling Ghanaians was shrouded in partisanship, it would
be very difficult if not impossible for the NRC to achieve that goal. He said,
for instance, the opposition parties in the country had not given the
commission their fullest support.
The MP said the NPP chairman,
Harona Esseku, the NPP chairman’s justification of the coup of 24 February 1966
made some people wonder how a government would take recommendations on human
rights violation of that ear.
Bagbin said the
Reconciliation Commission in South Africa did not succeed as the African
National Congress (ANC), disagreed with its recommendations. Similarly, he said
the Nigerian Reconciliation Commission and others collapsed, attesting to the
failure of such initiatives in Africa.
Ghana, he said, should not
therefore follow the examples of others who failed in their bid to reconcile
the nation. Bagbin said the NPP had misled Ghanaians by creating the impression
that the reconciliation procession was new, saying the exercise began long ago.
“Since 1992, reconciliation had been done through various acts of government
including the grant of amnesty to detainees and the return of confiscated
assets to their original owners.
The Minority Leader said even
though the property of late Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia, President of the Second
Republic, was confiscated during the Acheampong regime, it was the NDC that
de-confiscated it. He said the government also proceeded to give appointments to
people who were from other political tradition.
Bagbin said the government of
the PNDC and the NDC had people from the UP and CPP and also ensured regional
balance in appointments. He said by ignoring the initiatives of the NDC
government and pretending that it was implementing a policy on reconciliation
as contained in its manifesto, the NPP gave a political twist to an otherwise
noble intention.
Bagbin said the current
reconciliation exercise would have gained easy acceptance and proved the
sceptics wrong if the NPP had recognised what the PNDC/NDC did before. – The
Evening News
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Soldiers douched woman with pepper and gunpowder
Accra (Greater
Accra) 17 January 2003- Madam Jacquline Aquaye, alias Ama Akufo, on Thursday
told the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), sitting in Accra that
soldiers arrested her, seized a number of bags of flour, threatened her with
death and douched her with a mixture of hot pepper and gun powder in July after
the June 1979 military coup d'etat.
A glass of water
and a tissue paper could not stop her tears as she told her grotesque story
that drew sympathy from Dr Sylvia Boye, Professor Abena Dolphyne and Henrietta
Mensa-Bonsu, all the three female members of the Commission.
They abandoned
their seats on the high table to the open floor to offer comfort, and restrain
her from showing a scar on her tummy as evidence of an operation she underwent
as a result of bleeding from the pepper douching.
The television
and still cameramen would not budge to suggestions not to snap the scars; and
the women later reported that a scar of about five inches was found below the
naval of Madam Acquaye.
Madam Acquaye, a
baker and a sister to the late General Frederick William Kwasi Akufo, former
Head of State and Chairman of the Supreme Military Council II government, said
the seizure and brutalities had made her develop hypertension and she has
become unemployed, weak, and her children one of whom died last four years,
could not get any good secular education to be gainfully employed.
She said the
daughter died because she could not procure the drugs the 37 Military Hospital
prescribed and sought financial assistance from Mr and Mrs John Agyekum Kufuor,
currently the first couple to pay for the mortuary charges and organize a
funeral for her late daughter.
Madam Acquaye
said she was ready for any form of compensation, and the Most Rev Charles
Palmer-Buckle, Catholic Bishop of Koforidua and a member of the Commission
promised to visit her and her children to talk to them in a bid to come to
terms with their horrifying experience.
Madam Aquaye told
the Commission that one Major Kusi, alleged to have masterminded the seizure
and the brutalities had apologised to her, with the explanation that it was
their youthful exuberance and lack of wisdom that made them to behave in that
manner.
Madam Acquaye
told the Commission that on July 12, 1979 a group of soldiers, numbering more
than 10 stormed her house after sounds of gunshots. She said the soldiers
accused her of hoarding flour and her attempt to explain why she had about 260
bags of flour in her baking room could not convince the soldiers who ordered
her into a jeep and left with her and another vehicle brought up the rear with
the flour and the rest of soldiers.
She said she was
taken to the Police Station and at about 1600, she was threatened with death
and was later sent to the Peduase Lodge, where on arrival, a soldier asked his
colleagues, "you bring some meat?"
Madam Acquaye
said the soldiers brought her to the Akwapim Cells, which were filthy with
human excreta and other dirty materials. She said at dawn they drove them to
the Recce Department. Before he left he slapped me from behind and hit me with
a gun. She said she fell and was later taken to a place called Acheampong
House.
She said an
officer ground pepper and mixed it with gunpowder and used it to douche her,
which made her bled, but she was rather made to walk on her knees on a mixture
of broken bottles and gravel.
Madam Acquaye
said she was taken to cells at the Five BN and later fell unconscious, and
gained consciousness at the 37 Military Hospital. "When I returned from
the hospital, a Good Samaritan offered me a bed to lie on at the 5BN, but Awuah
pushed me down."
She said she had
to undergo an emergency operation on her stomach at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital,
which left a scar below her navel. She said this had left her hypersensitive
and left her very weak.
After her
release, Madam Acuaye said an officer named JC Fumi brought her letter informing
her that the flour, which the soldiers seized, which she said she bought at 63
cedis a bag had been sold at 70 cedis to the small-scale bakers and the money
would be given back to her.
She the money
never came and she petitioned the 37 Military Hospital, the Federation of Women
Lawyers, Confiscated Assets Committee, Commission on Human Rights and
Administrative Justice, among other bodies but to no avail.
Madam Gladys Atta
Owusua, from Akweteman also told the Commission of how a bullet hit her late
husband, Sergeant C K Bosompem on the
Her five children
could not have a good education. The Commission said her husband's case would
be examined and the appropriate recommendations of compensation made to
government.
Madam Francisca
Dartey, a nurse said her husband, who she said resigned from the Police Service
because of harassment from operatives of the Provisional National Defence
Council was killed by a stray bullet in a vehicle that gave him a lift on his
return from the hospital.
The Police
Administration had not given her any compensation and her children, she said,
were threatening suicide if they could not have anyone to assist them further
their education to appreciable levels.
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Konadu doubts Reconciliation Commission’s integrity
‘I am not going to say what
it will be when he goes there or not. That is not for me to say. That is a
future and let it be,” she said.
Contributing to Radio Gold’s
newspaper review this morning, on a front page story in a private daily with
the headline “Nana Konadu throws a bomb,” she expressed misgivings about the
way the whole reconciliation process was being handled.
According to her, the way and
manner the Reconciliation bill was passed by Parliament raised doubts in the
minds of people as to whether the nation was ready to reconcile.
“It does not give the
so-called reconciliation process a good footing to take off”.
Asked whether she thinks the
Commission’s job is a wasteful one, she replied, “I am not going to comment on it”.
If I were the one in charge of it, I will say listen, we want to reconcile, so
let us have everybody’s view. Why do you say you don’t agree with this or that,
I mean, you have to listen to opposing views. Do not take an iron-handed
approach on matters and just act your way because you are more than the other
group. This does not bring out the spirit of reconciliation. It doesn’t, she
said.
Nana Konadu said she observed
what happened in Parliament saw how the bill was rushed through and how it was
signed by the executive and passed.
I am looking at how it was
signed by the executive and passed on”. She said, “when you want to reconcile,
you start on a certain level, and that is all I am going to say which did not
happen”. Asked whether if the nation gets to that level she was asking for and
the husband is required to be present he will oblige, she said “we have not
reached that level. Let the powers that be, be right”. – Evening News
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Assistant Director of Prisons denies allegations at
NRC
Accra (Greater
Accra) 16 January 2003- Robert T. Baaba, Assistant Director of the Ghana
Prisons Service, on Tuesday denied allegations of brutality and hostility
brought against him by one Rexford Ohemeng before the National Reconciliation
Commission (NRC).
He also denied
another allegation of corruption brought against him by one Thomas Benefo,
witness for Ohemeng. Ohemeng, 40, a former military staff and currently a
security officer at the Castle, told the Commission that Mr Baaba, then the
Director of Nsawam Prisons, oversaw acts of brutality and hostility against him
and his colleague inmates for the nine years he was unlawfully detained in that
prison.
In his statement
to the Commission, Ohemeng said on
He said on
Ohemeng alleged
that during his stay in prison he had an encounter with Baaba, during which he
(Baaba) pulled a pistol on him and threatened to kill him. "He told me
point blank that he had the authority to kill me if I misbehaved so I had to
keep cool."
Ohemeng said
following that incident Baaba barred all his visitors from getting to him. He
said he got to know from his father that Baaba had told his parents that he was
dealing in
Ohemeng said he
later heard there was some theft that night and he and one Attipoe who were
suspects were stripped naked and later transferred to another cell. Ohemeng
said some of his colleagues at the time were moved from the regular cells to
the segregation cells where mentally retarded prisoners were kept for no
apparent reason.
He added that
such treatment, among others, led to some amount of rioting by some of the prisoners,
"but none of us from the military took part in the rioting". The
rioting occurred in the absence of Baaba and when he returned, he mounted an
operation for revenge on those who took part in the rioting, he said.
Ohemng said extra
prisons officers, including Adama Mensah, former Ghanaian heavyweight boxer,
were brought in from
"It was during
this brutality that I was mercilessly beaten with batons by prisons officers
till my leg was broken and my whole body was covered with blood." He said
because of those beatings, he was admitted to the infirmary, where he was
washed, treated and condemned to a wheel chair. However, he alleged that Baaba
seized it from him and asked him to crawl, which he did.
"Later when
the rioters were discovered and they confessed that I was not part of them,
Baaba told me that as a military man I was familiar with suffering as an
innocent person so I should just take it as one of those things.
"I had to
use crutches for a period of two and half years after those brutalities, until
I could walk properly," he said. Ohemeng said when he was released in
1992, he returned to the Burma Camp where he found out that he had been
dismissed from the Military since 1983 and yet his father received his monthly
salary of 600 cedis on his behalf until 1985.
In his statement
to the Commission, Benefo, a witness for Ohemeng said the cause of the riot for
which Ohemeng was wrongfully brutalized was some 287,000 cedis received from
foreign prisoners to be granted amnesty.
He said it was
alleged at the time that Baaba kept the money for himself and the prisoners
felt that was a corrupt practice, which should have attracted stiff punishment
from the prisons headquarter.
He alleged that
Baaba was apparently asked to pay back the money. Baaba, through his counsel,
Emmanuel Effah Anan, denied his involvement in any act of brutality, hostility
and corruption as alleged.
Anan did not deny
that Ohemeng was brutalized, but said that those who carried out the brutality
on the rioting prisoners were brought in from
He said even so,
the prison officers who carried out the alleged brutalities, did so as by law
required for them to avert such situations through the use of any means,
including force.
Effah Anan said
Baaba was never in charge of money at the Nsawam prisons and was therefore, not
privy to any money collected from prisoners. Neither was he ever made to refund
any such money at anytime.
The victim had
five witnesses, out of which only two were called for want of time.
Seating was
adjourned to 0930 on Thursday, when the other three witnesses would be called.
GRi…/
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Reconciliation sittings in
Dr Ken Agyemang Attafuah told the GNA in
In all there are nine commissioners. The
Commission has zonal offices in
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"The Commission is not a court and it
is not mandated to impose penalties or sanctions on any person. Grounded in a
victim-centred approach, the work of the Commission is expected to result in
recommendations, in appropriate cases, for redress to victims of egregious
human rights violations," he said.
Nana Addo made the remark at the opening
of the public hearing session of the NRC at the partially refurbished Old
Parliament House in
The hearing session of the Commission,
expected to be a heated and passionate one, begun in a literally heated
atmosphere characterized by the absence of air conditioners, which resulted in
a view described as a sea of flyers as almost everyone at the opening ceremony
kept fanning himself with the program flyers till the end of the ceremony.
Nana Addo noted that contrary to erroneous
public perception that the work of the NRC is to ensure that vengeance was
visited on perpetrators of human rights abuse, the Commission is mandated by
law to investigate and establish the truth about allegations of such abuses and
make recommendations for appropriate steps to be taken by the government and
not the law to resettle the victims.
He, therefore, urged persons who would be
invited to the hearing to disabuse their minds of seeking justice against
offenders. "The hearing should provide the opportunity for victims of the
past human rights violations to tell their stories and for the public to
acknowledge and empathize with their pain, suffering and hurt," he said.
"It should also provide a forum for us to reflect on the past and resolve
with one voice that never again shall this be allowed to happen."
Nana Addo said that the process is not
aimed at witch-hunting as some have sought to create the impression, but it is
to acknowledge publicly, that thousands of Ghanaians have paid a very high
price in the struggle for the entrenchment of democracy and rejection of
tyranny.
This, he said, was necessary to affirm the
dignity of the victims and survivors and also forms an integral part of the
healing of the entire Ghanaian society. He said government would lend its total
support to the Commission to discharge its obligation successfully, adding that
the government would continue to remain committed to the independence of the
Commission and allow it to work free till the end.
The A-G called on all Ghanaians to co-operate
with the Commission to ensure the success of its noble undertaking, saying that
the success of the Commission was for all Ghanaians.
Justice K. E. Amua-Sekyi, Chairman of the
NRC also said the hearing session was not a law court, adding that no one and
no particularly regime in being put on trial. "Every person who comes
before the Commission come as a witness to assist us to establish the record of
human rights abuses which have taken place over the years," he said.
"Act 611 gives the Commission the power to examine the record of abuse in
the regimes other than the constitutional ones."
He said the sole aim of the members of the
Commission is to promote national reconciliation, adding that they are
"not having axes to grind, no bones to pick and no scores to settle with
anyone".
Justice Amua-Sekyi assured the public that
NRC members would seek justice and pursue it at all cost. In one of several
solidarity and good-will messages diplomats, human rights activists and
survivors of human right abuses, offered their support to the Commission.
Rev. Father Matthew Kukah, Member of the
Nigeria Human Rights Violation Committee (HRVC) urged members of the NRC not to
allow the Commission to be used to visit vengeance on perpetrators of human
right abuses, but rather to promote peace and reconciliation.
He noted that there was always three sides
to a story in issues as the one facing the Commission, the side of the victim,
the side of the alleged perpetrator and the actual truth, adding, "you
must ensure to seek the truth to ensure peace."
Rev. Kukah said more than 40 years after
independence in Africa, the democratic history of the continent still remain
pathetic, adding that it was therefore, important to visit our past and in
doing so, learn from our mistake and appropriate our collective strength for a
better future.
He lauded the inclusion of religious
leaders in the NRC membership, in the persons of Rev. Father Palmer Buckle,
Catholic Bishop of Koforidua, and Maulvi Wahab Adam, Leader of the Ahmadiya
Moslem Mission, saying that this should serve as an "anchor for the
establishment of the truth, which is paramount to the success of the
Commission's work".
Dr. Alexander Boraine, Vice Chairman of
South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission said truth is cardinal to the
progress of every nation and until the truth about the past is sought and
established progress into the future is usually challenged.
He, therefore, urged members of the
Commission to make the establishment of truth their primary focus and assured
the Commission of his support. In a televised goodwill message, one Mr. Boakye
Gyan, a Ghanaian living abroad said on 19 June 1987, he was shot down by
soldiers around the Sankara Circle, but managed to survive and now remains the sole survivor of
the indecent among 40 persons who were shot dead that day.
He pledged his support to the Commission
in the bid to establish the truth about the past. Mrs. Mary Robinson, Director
of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said the
reconciliation process being undertaken by
She pledged the support of the UNHCR in
ensuring that healing, reconciliation and peace are achieved and sustained at
the end of the NRC's work. Hearing continues immediately after the opening
ceremony. Tuesdays, Wednesday's and Thursdays have been set aside for public
hearing and 15 cases have been lined up to be heard every week.
So far the Commission has investigated 100
out of 2,800 complaints of various abuses it received during the first five
months of its operations. Present at the opening ceremony were the Chief
Justice, Mr. Justice E. K. Wiredu, Ministers of States, members of the
diplomatic corps, members of the clergy and members of the traditional
councils.
GRi…/
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Amarkai Amarteifio is first man at Reconciliation
Commission
Ironically, Amarkai’s
submissions on Tuesday was not a redress from abuse suffered under a military
government, but what he said he suffered at the hands of Ghana's first civilian
government that he wanted the commission to address. With his tentative words,
the scene was set for more revelations, sometimes pathetic, sometimes just
bewildering.
As some of the victims got to
the climax of their narrations, many people in the packed hall of the Old
Parliament House, including the translator of the NRC sitting next to the
victims could not help but dip their hands in their pockets for handkerchiefs
to dab at what may have been wet eyes. Many shook their heads as they heard at
first hand aspects of the sordid unrecorded history of their country.
The malfunctioning central
air conditioners and public address (PA) systems at the main chambers of the
Old Parliament House added to the sense of pathos that had pervaded the hall.
Members of the security
agencies, civil servants, the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA),
international delegations, members of the diplomatic corps, traditional
leaders, the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) and the general public attended the
hearing which was preceded by a brief inaugural ceremony.
Amarteifio who alleged that
he was unlawfully detained in 1958 at the age of twenty-two years said he and
thirty-eight others were incarcerated for seven-and-a- half years under the
Preventive Detention Act (PDA) 1958 without charge and trial.
He said after some few days
in prison, a piece of paper with the inscription "you were acting in a
manner pre-judicial and calculated to undermine the security of the state,
therefore your detention is necessary" was shown to him. He said he was
not given the opportunity to refute the allegations. "I was just kept
there for almost seven-and-a-half years."
Amarteifio said he was handed
a paper while in prison to serve for five years, however after he had completed
his initial term in prison "another paper came that I have to serve for
another five years making ten years". He recalled, "for more than
five years we were not allowed visitors".
He said later they were divided
to the various prisons in the country. Asked why he is petitioning the
commission, the former employee of VALCO said, "I want to be compensated
like those who were released in some other countries. To be treated humanly
like them".
Amarteifio thanked the
government for setting up the NRC that had given "people like us the
chance to express my opinion about the detention". He said it is very
unfortunate that about 80% of the people he served his unlawful detention with
are "dead and today that you are giving the chance to express ourselves.
Only a few of us are alive".
The next to appear before the
nine-member commission chaired by a retired Supreme Court judge, Justice
Amua-Sakyi, was Albert Kpakpo Allotey who alleged he was unlawfully detained in
1958.
He said he was a member of
the United Party (UP) who was arrested at the age of eighteen years old in
addition to the first witness under the PDA. Allotey who spent seven-and-a-half
years at the James Fort and Kumasi Prisons said he wants to be compensated in
any form because he lost everything including his parents due to the ordeal he
went through. "I want anything as compensation because I look healthy but
lifeless."
An ex-police officer who was the
first complainant to the NRC, Emmanuel Amartey Adjei was the third to tell his
story. He said he was working at the Police Motor Traffic and Transport Union
(MTTU) when he was transferred to the residence of the first President, Dr
Kwame Nkrumah at the Flagstaff House.
He recalled that on
He said later he and others
were conveyed to the Police Headquarters and were subjected to serious torture.
"We were put down at the forecourt of the police headquarters and were
asked to remove our sandals and everything in the scorching sun and knelt down
and the torment lasted for sometime."
Adjei who wept while
narrating his ordeal said, "The headquarters of the police was then
covered with stone chippings so we were asked to kneel and move forward and
backwards and woe unto you if you complained [or asked] to attend to nature's
call".
Adjei who said he lost one of
his incisors during the torture said they were later conveyed to the Central
Police Station where they were subjected to more severe beatings. "From
there we were registered and taken to the Nsawam Medium Prisons to begin
another term of torture".
He said at the prisons where
he spent twenty-two months they were given double student beds "without
mattress". Upon release from prisons he was ordered to report at the
nearest police station every fortnight and was prevented from working with any
government institution for ten years. He was later employed at the Ghana
Publishing Corporation where his employment was terminated.
He asked the commission to
recommend compensation for him in the form of full SSNIT pension, which was due
him but was not given to him. The hearing continues today.
GRi…/
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NRC hears four cases in its maiden hearing
The four were Amarkai Laryea
Amarteifio, Albert Kpakpo Allotey, both of Kaneshie in
The cases involved detention,
unlawful dismissal, unlawful arrests and detention and ill treatment and the
petitioners said they bore no bitterness to their offenders but demanded
compensation for the violations they suffered.
Confident but tearful Adjaye,
67, an ex-guardsman at the Flagstaff House, was supported with tissue paper and
a bottle of mineral water as he narrated the ordeals he went through from
He said at the Headquarters,
they were beaten, made to kneel on stone chippings and moved about forward,
backward and to the sides and also prevented from freeing themselves when
nature called.
"In the process, I lost
a tooth. It was terrible. The ill treatment lasted the whole day of the
February 25. On that day we were conveyed to the Central Police Station and
locked in two apartments. Soldiers stampeded us down, and we were at the brink
of death when a policeman came to intervene", Adjaye said in sobs.
He said the torture continued
in Nsawam Prisons for three months. They were kept in a cell with a
"disintegrated" toilet facility. "They gave us one ladle of
"koko", porridge prepared with fermented corn dough, and two cubes of
sugar for breakfast, and 16 ounces of gari a day for lunch and supper with soup
whose surface looked like a mirror. Meat was absent."
Adjaye, then a little above
30 years, and a father to a boy of two and a girl of eight months, said they
were not allowed any visits and only allowed to write three copies of letters,
which were censored. Adjaye, who incidentally was the first to file a complaint
to the Commission when it began work in September 2002, said he was shuttled
between Nsawam and Usher Fort Prison before his release on
"I wasn't paid anything,
and there was no formal letter that I had been removed from office. Adjaye
spoke of subsequent employment with the Ghana Publishing Corporation (GPC) upon
his release, as Security Officer Grade Two and rose through the ranks to the
position of head of the security. He said while still at office in January
1990, the GPC engaged another person as head of security without informing him.
He said he petitioned the
Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice and after an unsuccessful
legal battle, he was prematurely retired at the age of 55 without the payment
of any entitlements, which he said made life very difficult for him and had to
approach Kofi Totobi Quakyi, former National Security Co-ordinator for
financial assistance to enable his daughter go to secondary school. He said
upon several petitions the GPC had only paid him three million cedis with the
remaining yet to be paid.
Asked what his petition to
the Commission was, Adjaye said: "Forgiveness is the law of love. I want
to forgive all those who have had a hand. I will be happy if something is given
out as compensation. I lost all my property in the barracks where I stayed."
GRi…/
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Reconciliation
Commission begins hearing
The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Nana Addo Dankwa
Akufo-Addo, is expected to perform the inaugural ceremony, which will attract
high-profile local and foreign guests, including Dr Alex Borraine, the Deputy
Chairman of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the
founder of the International Centre for Transitional Justice in New York.
The inaugural ceremony will be strictly by invitation after which the
public will be admitted to the hearings. The commission has set aside Tuesdays,
Wednesdays and Thursdays for public hearing during which a minimum of 15 cases
will be heard.
More than 100 of the 2,800 complaints so far received by the commission
have been fully investigated and slated for hearing. Statements so far taken
from witnesses cover abductions, killings, disappearances, torture, ill
treatment and seizure of property.
The periods under review, as defended by Act 611, which set up the
commission, are 24 February 1966, to 21 August 1969; 13 January 1972 to 23
September 1979 and December and 31 December 1981 to 6 January 1993.
However, people desirous of lodging complaints or petitions in respect
of violations or human rights abuses during constitutional government
governments and between 6 March 1957 and 6 January 1993, are encouraged to do
so with the commission.
The commission is expected to hold both public and private hearings for
a period not exceeding one year from the date of its first hearing except that
for a good cause shown by the commission, the President may by Executive
Instrument, extend the term of the commission for a further period of six
months.
At the end of its work, the commission shall within three months, submit
its final report to the President. The Investigations Department of the
commission has started servicing notices to all parties to appear before the
commission on the hearings days.
The object of the hearings is to afford alleged victims of human rights
violations and persons involved in human rights violations the opportunity to
tell their stories, seek redress in the process and contribute to national
healing and reconciliation.
The hearings will also provide a unique opportunity for the general
public to appreciate the nature and patters of human rights violations during
the military regimes. Ms Annie Anipa, Director of Public Affairs of the
commission, said in an interview that the hearings will be conducted in
accordance with the rules of natural justice and procedural fairness with the
prime consideration that a miscarriage of justice does not occur.
“The reconciliation hearings will be qualitatively different from court
hearings in the sense that unlike a court hearing, the aim of the
reconciliation hearings will not be to decide who wins and who loses in a
particular case,” she said.
She added that the commission is a quasi-judicial body and, therefore, a
semi-formal procedure will be adopted for the hearings with the aim of
obtaining relevant and appropriate information to assist the commission in
determining the veracity or otherwise of the statements received.
Ms Anipa said the procedure will also enable the commission to make
appropriate recommendations for redress in respect of individual complaints and
for fostering reconciliation, showing respect to the victims or witnesses and
providing a platform for healing the hurt of others.
She said each witness will be led by counsel for the commission and that
each witness is also entitled to have his or her own counsel. She said further
that if the need arises, the commission will move outside
Ms Anipa urged Ghanaians to focus on reconciliation and to reconcile
with one another in order to enhance peace in the country. “We also wish to
assure Ghanaians that we are determined to achieve the object for which the
commission was set up,” she said.
She acknowledged that the task of reconciling a nation is not easy but
said the commission draws inspiration from the fact that the majority of
Ghanaians recognise the need to reconcile the nation, adding that “in 2003, the
commission will work even harder to make the reconciliation process a reality.”
She said the work of the commission is that of peace-building,
development and nation-building, observing that “this has become even more
imperative as a country engaged in consolidation of democracy and the
strengthening of governance institutions.”
Ms Anipa said besides providing historical clarification of human rights
violations during the specified periods, the commission will direct its work
towards providing victims a forum to express their grievances.
Justice K.E. Amua-Sekyi, a retired Supreme Court Judge, chairs the
nine-member commission. Other commissioners are Professor Henrietta
Mensah-Bonsu, Senior Lecturer of the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana; Most
Rev Charles Palmer Buckle, Catholic Bishop of Koforidua; Christian Appia-Agyei,
former Secretary-General of the Trades Union Congress; Lt Gen Emmanuel Erskine,
former Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), and
Dr Sylvia Boye, formerly of the West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC).
The rest are Prof Florence Abena Dolphyne, former Pro-Vice Chancellor of
the University of Ghana; Maulvi Wahab Adam, Ameer and Missionary in charge of
the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission; Uborr Dalafu Labal II, Paramount Chief of Sangulu
in the Northern Region. Dr Ken Attafuah, is the Executive Secretary of the
commission. – Daily Graphic
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