The National Reconciliation Commission
sittings
24
– 03 – 2003: - I Filmed Executions – Riad Admits
24
– 03 – 2003: - NDC calls for the removal of NRC Chairman
24
– 03 – 2003: - NRC official calls for support
24
– 03 – 2003: - I will repeat what led to my detention for eight
years
24
– 03 – 2003: - NRC will hand over those who
threaten witnesses
24
– 03 – 2003: - I scolded Adjei Boadi for
executing prisoners
24
– 03 – 2003: - Don't think of vengeance - NRC
24
– 03 – 2003: - 'WO Adjei Boadi 'sprayed'
soldiers' - witness
24
– 03 – 2003: - NRC Zonal Office receives 902
complaints
24
– 03 – 2003: - Extend of sittings of NRC to
Regions-Bishop
24
– 03 – 2003: - I want proper retirement, pension
- Jackson
24
– 03 – 2003: - We could not petition PNDC
24
– 03 – 2003: - Be compassionate to Witnesses -
Bishop
24
– 03 – 2003: - Nkwantabisa denies giving orders to kill
24
– 03 – 2003: - Commission considering dismissal
Postal workers
24
– 03 – 2003: - Help me find out why I was arrested - Lawyer
24
– 03 – 2003: - Baako says 31 December Coup
betrayed 4 June
24
– 03 – 2003: - Mawuli Goka was really tortured - Baako
24
– 03 – 2003: - Bebli denies torturing Goka,
others
24
– 03 – 2003: - I didn't seek spiritual help -
Adjei Boadi
24
– 03 – 2003: - “Now, I am like a beggar”-Madam
Kaitoo
Accra
(Greater Accra) 24 March 2003 - Mr Riad Hozaifeh, a confidant of ex-President Rawlings
has confessed that he video-tapped the execution of some soldiers at the
Airforce Base, Burma Camp, in Accra during the PNDC era. He explained that it
was done because those in authority wanted it to be documented and kept in the
archives.
He was
reacting to comments made by the Editor of the Crusading Guide, Kweku Baako Jnr
at the National Reconciliation Commission that he filmed scenes and executions
carried out during the PNDC era.
Riad
explained further that he was instructed to film those scenes for posterity so
that skeptics and doubters would have material evidence of the killings. The
films, according to him, are available and the Reconciliation Commission can
secure them if it wants to. Riad also expressed his willingness to appear before
the Commission if invited.
He
stated that when former President Rawlings’ buddies, Amartey Kwei and Capt Kojo
Lee were executed, there were rumours that they were not killed, but set free
so the authorities decided to film all future executions and he was assigned
that task.
Even
though Riad was fuzzy about the actual capacity in which he acted during the
PNDC era, he intimated that he drew his powers from ex-Chairman Rawlings. He was arrested a few days
after Kweku Baako made the allegations at the Reconciliation Commission, for
allegedly possessing illegal arms and is on bail.
Riad
condemned the Police for the raid on his house and subsequent arrest saying
that this is the third time that he had been searched since the NPP came to
power.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 24 March 2003-
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Sunday called for the removal of Mr
Justice Kweku Entrew Amua-Sekyi, as Chairman of the National Reconciliation
Commission (NRC) for his open bias and grugde he had against the AFRC/PNDC and
the NDC governments.
The NDC said judging from Mr. Justice
Amua-Sekyi's demeanour, his posture, his hostile attitude to witnesses who
spoke in favour of the AFRC/PNDC eras, it was obvious that the man has an
agenda other than national reconciliation.
The party in a petition sent to
President John Agyekum Kufuor explaining why it was calling for the removal of
the Chairman of the NRC said for Justice Amua-Sekyi to have said, "he has
disgraced himself. He has made a fool of himself" after Mr David
Walenkaki, a retired Commissioner of Police had given evidence to the Commission
had proved his bias against the AFRC/PNDC.
The petition signed by Dr Nii
Josiah-Aryeh, General Secretary of the party on 21 March said Justice
Amua-Sekyi's utterances and especially from his over-heard whisper to Maulvi
Wahab Adam, a member of the Commission, which was picked by a live microphone
and which he had categorically stated that he stood by had removed all doubts
as to his bias against the AFRC/PNDC as far as witnesses appearing before the
Commission.
The petition said Justice Amua-Sekyi's
whisper "has gone to confirm fears that he should never have been
appointed to chair the NRC, and that having been so appointed, he should not
have accepted the position, being a person with so many axes to grind against
the PNDC and the NDC governments, the two governments the NPP has targeted in
its so-called reconciliation exercise."
It said, "Mr Justice Kweku Entrew
Amua-Sekyi is bitter against the PNDC Government that his father was convicted
and sentenced by a public tribunal. "He is aggrieved with the NDC
Government that his father's property was confiscated, property that he tried
unsuccessfully to have restored to him as a substitute appellant.
"He bears a grudge against the NDC
Government at nearly being disgraced through investigation by the
Constitutional Committee and thereby being compelled to retire prematurely from
the Judicial Service. He is embittered at the NDC Government for the
interdiction of his wife from the office at the Ghana Education Service
(GES)".
Copied to Justice Amua-Sekyi himself,
Members of the NRC, Chairman of the Council of State, both the Majority and
Minority Leaders of Parliament, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and to all
media houses the petition said Justice Amua-Sekyi should have been appearing as
a perceived victim himself at the Commission, which he was rather presiding
over.
The petition said Justice Amua-Sekyi
was forced to retire prematurely from the Supreme Court in order to avoid
investigation by a Constitutional Committee set up in the NDC era into his
conduct as a judge following allegations of serious misconduct on his part made
by a member of the public.
"Justice Amua-Sekyi also seriously
compromised himself as a judge in the matter of his late convict father's
property that was confiscated to the state following the father's conviction
and sentence by one of the Public Tribunals.
"Justice Amua-Sekyi's wife's
appointment with the Ghana Education Service was terminated following finding
of impropriety made against her and others under the government of the NDC,
seen as the successor government to the PNDC."
It said: "a petition dated 9
August 1995, was submitted to the President pursuant to Article 146 of the
Constitution by one George King Mensah of House No. C.17/16, Alajo, Accra, that
Justice Amua-Sekyi be removed as a Justice of the Supreme Court.
"The petitioner alleged that Mr
Justice Amua-Sekyi misconducted himself by discussing a pending case on which
he was a panellist at the Supreme Court with a non-panellist and a non-Supreme
Court Judge, Justice Lamptey at the Labadi Beach Hotel, it being a misconduct
for a judge to discuss a pending case with a non-panel member."
The petition said Justice Amua-Sekyi
was forced to retire prematurely from the Supreme Court in order to avoid
investigation by a Constitutional Committee set up in the NDC era into his
conduct as a judge following allegations of serious misconduct on his part made
by a member of the public.
"Justice Amua-Sekyi also seriously
compromised himself as a judge in the matter of his late convict father's
property that was confiscated to the state following the father's conviction
and sentence by one of the Public Tribunals.
"Justice Amua-Sekyi's wife's
appointment with the Ghana Education Service was terminated following finding
of impropriety made against her and others under the government of the NDC,
seen as the successor government to the PNDC."
It said: "a petition dated 9
August 1995, was submitted to the President pursuant to Article 146 of the
Constitution by one George King Mensah of House No. C.17/16, Alajo, Accra, that
Justice Amua-Sekyi be removed as a Justice of the Supreme Court.
"The petitioner alleged that
Justice Amua-Sekyi misconducted himself by discussing a pending case on which he
was a panellist at the Supreme Court with a non-panellist and a non-Supreme
Court Judge, Justice Lamptey at the Labadi Beach Hotel, it being a misconduct
for a judge to discuss a pending case with a non-panel member."
The petition said: "Mr Justice Amua-Sekyi
was alleged to have, in the process, also made some derogatory remarks about
his colleagues including the then Chief Justice, Justice P.E.N.K. Archer who
were on the panel."
It said "Mr Justice I.K. Abban,
then Justice of the Supreme Court, who was particularly at the receiving end of
Justice Amua-Sekyi's vitriolic attack and who overheard the offending
conversation between Justice Amua-Sekyi and Justice Lamptey, then a Court of
Appeal Judge, quickly remonstrated, challenged, reprimanded and castigated
Justice Amua-Sekyi and pointed out to him that his behaviour constituted a
breach of the ethics of a judge."
"An obviously but justifiably
piqued Justice I.K. Abban filed a formal complaint against Justice
Amua-Sekyi. The then Chief Justice, P.E.N.K.
Archer, who was then statutorily retiring from office on 21st
February 1995, was unable to handle the complaint.
"The case of the petitioner George
King Mensah was that having read these facts of the case from the Ghanaian
Times under the caption, 'Judicial Scandal at Labadi Beach Hotel', he was
satisfied that a prima facie case existed against Justice Amua-Sekyi which
required a formal investigation in line with the demands of the
Constitution."
The petition said Justice Amua-Sekyi's
father had been convicted for deception of a public officer, forgery and
illegal acquisition of wealth. It said the petitioner George King Mensah
alleged that Justice Amua-Sekyi was sitting on a contempt case against lawyer
Mensah-Bonsu of B.J. da Rocha and Co.
At the same time, Justice Amua-Sekyi was using the law firm B.J. d Rocah
and Co. to prosecute an appeal on his behalf in respect of his deceased convict
father in which he (Justice Amua-Sekyi) was seeking to be substituted for his
late father in the appeal.
"Justice Amua-Sekyi was in
constant touch with the lawyer for the contemnor and even as the contempt case
was still pending before him, swore an affidavit in the chambers of the
contemnor's lawyer's law firm of B.J. da Rocha and Co. in respect of his late father's
conviction and sentence by a Public Tribunal."
George King Mensah contended that
Justice Amua-Sekyi's actions were dishonourable, disreputable, reprehensible
and amounted to misconduct. The case was referred to the Chief Justices and
when Justice I.K. Abban who, in August 1995 became the Chief Justice was
reluctant to activate the formal investigation but for the mandatory
constitutional demand from the petitioner and in line Article 146 of the
Constitution, a Judicial Council satisfied itself that the was a prima facie
case and in consultation with the Chief Justice appointed three Judges.
They were Justice D.K. Adjabeng, Sureme
Court, Chairman, Justice G.K. Acquah, and Mrs Justice Sophia Akuffo, both
Supreme Court Judges to join two members Dr Augustine Balina Adda, Navro-Pio,
Paramount Chief of Navrongo and Madam Regina Morrison, Assistant Director,
Regional Education Officer, Accra to investigate the complaints George King
Mensah raised.
The petition said as the committee was
ready to start sitting "Mr Justice Amua-Sekyi threw in the towel on 25
June 1996 by submitting a letter to the ex-President, Jerry John Rawlings that
he had retired from the Judicial Service without giving any reason.
It said it was on 5 July, 1996 that
Amua-Sekyi was formally accepted to have retired as Justice of the Supreme
Court. The petition explained that the wife of Justice Amua-Sekyi had her
appointment as Director of Supplies with the Ghana Education Service terminated
following findings of impropriety made against her and five others under the
government of the NDC which was seen as the successor government to the PNDC.
It said Justice Amua-Sekyi has since borne a grudge against the PNDC/NDC
governments.
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He said mankind
needed to reconcile with himself before he could reconcile with God. Therefore,
it was the responsibility of all those who believed in the existence of God to
support the national reconciliation exercise aimed at bringing unity among
Ghanaians.
Amofa-Kra was
addressing a forum on National Reconciliation organised by the Social and
Community Development Office of the
It was to afford
members of the congregation the opportunity to have insight into the structure
and activities of the NRC and also encourage those, who might had fallen victim
to human rights abuses since independence to petition the Commission.
Amofa-Kra said the
Amofa-Kra said the
Commission, as an independent body, had put measures in place to ensure the
success of the exercise and bring unity among the people. He appealed to
members of the congregation who were victims or know people who had suffered
human rights abuses to petition the Commission for redress.
Some members of the
congregation wondered why witnesses, who appeared before the Commission were
cross-examined by lawyers of the alleged perpetrators since the Commission was
not a court of law. Others also asked whether compensation would be paid to
victims who appeared before the Commission.
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Tetteh Adimeh
stunned those at the hearing when he said in an answer to a question posed by
Commissioner Uborr Dalafu Labal II he would do it again. Adimeh had told the
NRC that he was arrested, beaten in the cells of the Bureau of the National
Investigations (BNI) and spent eight years in detention for ferrying Ghanaian
returnees from
After waiting for
about a minute, he said: "I will help any Ghanaian who is genuinely in
distress." Uborr Labal then remarked: "Thank you. Thank you for your
answer. May God bless you."
Adimeh who hails
from Ningo told the Commission that in 1984, he was fishing around
He said since the
men did not have any money they decided to ferry them into
He said after they
had left the Chief Fisherman's residence, he (Agboketse) sent for the Police to
interrogate them as well as the eight returnees they brought. Adimeh said the
Police arrested him, his friend, the chief fisherman and the eight men because
the Police claimed he should have sent the men to the Police station instead of
sending them to the Chief Fisherman's house.
He said they were
transferred to the BNI cells where they were beaten. Later he was sent to
Ussher Fort Prisons without any charge, he said, adding, "I do not know what
happened to the rest."
Adimeh said he spent
two years at the Ussher Fort Prison without any trial and was transferred to
the Sekondi Central Prisons where he spent six years. He said he was released
in 1992 without being given any reasons. Adimeh said the imprisonment had
resulted in the loss of his friends and family members because "nobody
came to visit me in prison except those with whom I stayed in the same
house."
He said he was
married with two children at the time of his arrest and his wife, a fishmonger,
could not send the children to school. Adimeh said the boat he worked with got
rotten while he was in prison hence he now has no means of fishing and pleaded
with the Commission to help him find work.
General Emmanuel
Erskine, a member of the Commission, advised him to be careful with how he went
about his activities because by helping others he may be going against the law.
He said the closure of the Ghana-Togo boarder at the time was perhaps due to
security reasons and by ferrying those men into
General Erskine told
him to understand that he went against the law and that might have led to his
brush with the law. He advised him to forget about the pain and forge ahead.
John Kwabena Adom, a
trader at Hohoe, said in July 1979, a group of about 20 soldiers from the Ho
Mortar Regiment led by Lt. Ken Korah, stormed the house of his father, Opanin
Daniel Kwaku Addae Adom, a prosperous businessman, at about 2200 hours and
demanded to see him.
Adom said he told
the soldiers that his father had been involved in an accident and was sick. He
said he pleaded to stand in for his father and the soldiers arrested him and
sent him to the Ho Mortar Regiment guardroom.
He said he was asked
why he was brought there and he replied he did not know. "The soldiers
requested me to remove my spectaacles and my shirt. Just as I was doing that
they gave me two hefty slaps. I fell
and they kicked me all over."
Adom said the
following day they brought him out and used a sharp object to shave him. They
accused him of profiteering and whipped him with an electric cable. He said
after this he was brought back into the guardroom, but his wife arranged
through one Lt Nyarko, the Operations Commander of the Ho Mortar Regiment, and
he was released.
Adom said shortly
after he was released, soldiers again led by Lt. Korah arrived in a Pick-up,
forced open the father's trading store, Aquay Allah Stores, and auctioned the
contents from 1700 to about 2200. They sent him back to the Ho Mortar Regiment
guardroom.
Once again his wife
sneaked into the barracks and arranged for his release. Adom said after his
release, the soldiers returned and auctioned the remaining items in the store,
took the key away and kept it till a week before the then AFRC handed over
power to the Limann's Administration.
He said the family
lost about 500,000 in the looting during that military attack. His father, who
was then 65 years old, became disinterested in business, and died two years ago.
Mis wife, Charity
Afua Konadu corroborated her husband's testimony and added that Abotare Shop
owned by one Obeng, was also raided and the owner taken away. She said one
Ellis, manager of a filling station, and a dispenser and laboratory technician at
the
Ex-detective
Inspector Nathaniel Tawiah Amedogbeh, formerly stationed at the Kaneshie
Divisional Headquarters, said on
"I ran to the
market to see if I could help my cousin retrieve some of the items. I saw
soldiers standing at the market. They were many," he said. "When I
reached the gate where she used to pass to the market I saw four dead bodies -
three men already dead, and another young man, who was running away with three
pieces of cloth, shot before my own eyes."
Amedogbeh said the
soldiers asked traders who were coming out with their wares to send them into
an army vehicle. He said those who were trying to run away were shot and the gate
to the market was later closed.
"My cousin came
later on and I asked her never to venture into the market. I asked her to go
home," he said. Amedogbeh said he did not see the importance of coups and
called on Ghanaians to let democracy prevail.
The Commission
expressed its sympathy to Madam Yawa Bobi who, Chairman Justice Kweku
Amua-Sekyi said, had become a destitute. Justice Amua-Sekyi said
recommendations for Yawa Bobi would be based on her statement and Amedogbeh's
evidence.
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He was reacting to an alleged threat issued by
Sergeant Victor Prince Fiagbor of the Fifth Infantry Battalion to a witness,
Alex Kwame Yeboah on Tuesday after Yeboah allegedly pointed to him as one of WO
Nkwaantabisah's "torture men".
Justice Amuah-Sekyi advised Yeboah to give the full
details of the alleged threat to the Executive Secretary of the Commission for
further investigations to be conducted into the matter.
Sergeant Fiagbor who had earlier denied that soldiers
at the harbour maltreated and mishandled workers as alleged by Yeboah, could
not answer a question by Ms. Sylvia Boye, a member of the Commission that he
was the same person who wrote in his statement that some workers alleged to
have stolen rice and sugar were caught and drilled.
Fiagbor said he never knew Yeboah, who claimed he
severely beat him and asked him to crawl from Shed Four to the harbour gate,
until they met for questioning at the office of Major Courage Quashigah, then
in charge of the Military Police. "What Yeboah said was not true,"
Fiagbe said.
Ms. Boye cautioned him to speak the truth, as that was
the only means through which the Commission could get the facts to enable it to
assuage the pain of persons who had been dehumanised.
Yeboah told the Commission that he was working with
the Ghana Cargo Handling Company in 1984 as "gangway", a security man
who prevented people from entering the ship to steal.
He said on
He said while he was going home he saw a soldier
called "No Way" who ordered him to sit in the mixture of oil and
water. "I showed him my card that I was a worker there but he insisted I
should sit in the mixture and slapped me."
Yeboah said he wanted to know what he had done to
warrant such treatment but this rather infuriated "No Way" who used
the butt of his gun to hit him making him fall in the process.
He said at that stage, two soldiers called Harbour
Rawlings and Dzottor Fianu, joined in beating him. "Boxer", another
soldier, joined later. Yeboah said they beat him, removed his clothes and
soaked it into the dirty oil and rainwater.
"They also collected 700 dollars that the captain of the ship gave
me to buy lobsters for him and my 4,000 cedis and Omega wrist-watch."
He said "No Way" attempted to shoot him but
a police sergeant nearby prevented him from shooting. Yeboah said Victor
Fiagbor later joined and asked him to crawl from Shed Four to the gate whilst
he (Fiagbor) caned him. He said the soldiers later asked him to go but he
refused because he wanted to know what he did to warrant the treatment.
Yeboah said he reported the case to the Police CID as
well as the Ghana News Agency (GNA) but he neither got a reply nor see the
story in the newspapers. He said due to the beatings he started feeling pains
in his stomach and had to undergo surgery because the doctor said he suffered
from internal bleeding. He said he was on admission for a month.
Yeboah said he petitioned Major Quashigah who
questioned the soldiers. He added that the soldiers gave conflicting stories
and claimed he stole a torchlight battery. The case was later referred to
Gondar Barracks.
He said friends and one Captain Obeng advised him to
leave Tema and not to pursue the case in order to save his life. Yeboah said he
stayed in
He said the beatings he received had resulted in a
heart disease for which he had to visit the hospital every two months. Yeboah
said as a result he was unemployed and prayed the commission for compensation
and the return of the 700 dollars and the wristwatch.
Counsel for Fiagbor, Ms Phillipa Dennis, said her
client was nowhere near the scene as he was detailed to arrest people who stole
sugar and rice elsewhere. She said Yeboah was trying to make his case
"sweet'' to the commission by adding names of soldiers who were not even
present at the scene.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 20 March 2003- The Reverend
Apostle Brigadier (rtd) Albert Tehn-Addy, former Border Guard Commander, on
Wednesday told the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) that he admonished
a member of the defunct Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) for the
summary execution of some prisoners.
He said admonished Ex-Warrant Officer Class One Joseph
Kwabena Adjei Boadi, a member of the PNDC for shooting six prisoners kept in the
guardroom of the Border Guard Headquarters in 1983.
The former Border Guard Commander said he first saw
the prisoners, who he learnt were former military intelligence officers, a day
before their summary execution. "They were not armed, they did not pose
any threat to anybody," he said.
Tehn-Addy was giving evidence in connection with the
shooting of five former military intelligence officers. They included Samuel
Gyimah, whose son, Fred Gyimah, on Tuesday in a testimony mentioned Adjei Boadi
as the one who ordered the soldiers out of the guardroom when they were having
a meal and "sprayed" his father and the four others to death on
Adjei Boadi who was at the NRC sat taciturn, very
close to his counsel, Agyare Koi Larbi, with whom he occasionally conferred,
during Tehn-Addy's narration Tehn-Addy said he had difficulty remembering the
date of the execution but recalled that after a coup attempt and jail break by
Lance Corporal Giwa he had information that six prisoners had been brought in
by Adjei Boadi.
Tehn-Addy said he went on an inspection of the
guardroom, and "found six young men barefooted in their trousers and asked
them why they were there, but they said they didn't know." He said he did
not press further.
He said he then went to have lunch, but just as he was
finishing the lunch, he had a call reporting a shooting incident at the
Headquarters. He asked that the victims should be sent to the hospital to
receive medical attention.
The former Border Guard Commander said the caller
insisted that he wanted him to see what had happened before conveying the
victims to the hospital. Tehn-Addy said considering the violent events of the
time, he loaded his gun with 28 rounds of bullets and a spare 28 attached to a
magazine to face any eventuality on the way.
"On arrival, I saw the prisoners lying on the
ground in front of my car. They were six of them. They were the same people I
saw before I went to lunch. ".... I asked the Guard Commander who did the
shooting, and he told me it was W. O. Adjei Boadi."
Tehn-Addy said he remarked that "if that was what
the PNDC wanted, let it be so". He asked the Guard Commander to ring the
37 Military Hospital for an ambulance to "collect these people away"
for possible revival.
He said he told the Guard Commander to ask Adjei Boadi
to see him and he came one week later. Tehn-Addy said when Adjei Boadi came, he
scolded him for executing the prisoners.
He said he told Adjei Boadi that with his high
position as a member of the PNDC, he should not have been involved in the
shooting of the prisoners. Tehn-Addy said he also reminded him of the
consequences of the role of another member of the PNDC, Amartey Kwei, in a
similar shooting incident.
When the Commission asked Tehn-Addy why he did not ask
Adjei Boadi his reason for executing the prisoners, he said it was not his
business to ask that question.
"In a revolution, if you dare ask such questions,
that is the easiest way to get out of this world." Commission: "Did
you inform the families of the incident?" Tehn-Addy: "It was not our
business. When they get to the Military Hospital, the hospital will through the
record office inform the next-of-kin and arrange for their burial.
Commission: "How do you now feel towards Adjei
Boadi?" Tehn-Addy: "When a man repents, God forgives or mitigates his
punishments. If he repents he will be forgiven."
During cross-examination Koi Larbi asked Tehn-Addy
questions about whether he was aware of a search and 'destroy operation' and instruction
to shoot anyone wearing a tracksuit after a failed coup attempt but he replied,
"I'm not aware".
Tehn-Addy said he remembered there was an uprising
around the time of the shooting incident, but could not remember the date.
Tehn-Addy said he did not know Gyima's children whom he met for the first time
at the premises of the Commission a day earlier.
He said initially he did not want to testify and added
he shed tears when saw the children. Counsel requested that the Commission
deferred the reaction by Adjei Boadi to Tehn-Addy's evidence to another time.
However, the Commission Chairman Justice Kweku Amua-Sekyi said he could be
heard immediately. Adjei Boadi's reaction was deferred to another day.
Rico Kwabena Ampadu a former furniture manufacturer,
and owner of Star Furniture and Upholstery in Accra, but now resident at
Nkawkaw said he had supplied a quantity of furniture to the Ghana Armed Forces
(GAF) before the 24 February 1966 coup erupted.
He said the total cost of the items were 681,000 by
then but a number of attempts he made to get his money was futile, and his
lawyer advised him to stop pursuing the case. He said he had to sell his house
at Abossey Okai and other business at Oda and Nkawkaw to pay some of his debts.
Ampadu also said the Military, Police and personnel
from the Fire Service looted his furniture storeroom at Okaishi following the 4
June 1979 Uprising. He said he lost 68 million cedis in that operation. The
Commission asked Ampadu to look for the documents on his transaction with the
GAF, but he said it was a long time and find it difficult to get the documents.
Hearing continues.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 19 March 2003- The National
Reconciliation Commission (NRC) on Tuesday registered its gratefulness to a
witness who indicated that he had dropped his intention to let his children
join the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) to avenge the brutalities he suffered from
the hands of the Military after the 31 December 1981 revolution.
"The good people of this land join me to say
thank you for your decision", Uborr Dalafu Labal II, a member of the
Commission told Enock Anim Mpare, the witness. Commissioner Dalafu added that
it was necessary to remove any bitterness, hatred and anger that he might have
against the Military, for it would only perpetuate the cycle of disunity and
plunge the country into chaos.
Mpare had earlier told the Commission that he had
developed a strong aversion to soldiers, and any sight of them put him off, and
he has vowed that his children would join the military to retaliate his painful
losses, including the loss of his vehicle, transport business, loss of his two
children and put in extreme poverty.
Just after he got into the witness seat, Mpare broke
into tears. Some of the people in the public gallery began murmuring "sei
sei yi ara?" meaning "just now?" Mpare said after resigning from
the then Cocoa Marketing Board (CMB), he got into a business of buying from
Ghana and selling in Nigeria.
It was then that he struck an acquaintance with one
Moses Olatoji, a Nigerian who assisted him to buy a Toyota bus which he
registered with a foreign number and used it to run transport from Ghana to
Nigeria.
Mpare said one day after the 31 December 1981
revolution, after returning from a trip to Nigeria, he was driving the wife to the
market, when a group of five soldiers stopped the bus as he was about to enter
the Central Market at Koforidua.
Mpare said the soldiers asked him where he was going
and after replying, they remarked that while they were struggling he rather was
driving to the market. He said the soldiers told him that one Nkwantabisa had
ordered them to bring the vehicle, and added that the soldiers did not agree to
sit in the bus for him to send them to the one requesting for the bus.
He said he refused to give them the vehicle and this
resulted in a scuffle, during which one soldier gave him a slap. "The
soldiers got down and beat me to the extent that I felt very weak. My wife
shouted for help, but no one came to help for fear of Nkwatabisa. All that I
found was that I was later in hospital. I lost my teeth."
Mpare said he was detained for a day in the hospital
and after he was discharged, he went to Nkwantabisa's office to ask him of his
vehicle, but he (Nkawantabisa) ordered him out of his office.
After fruitless efforts to get his bus back, Mpare
said he gave up. He said life became very difficult for him. He and the wife
occasionally sold clothes to make ends meet, and later left for Nigeria with
their three children but unfortunately, just after three months, two of their
children contracted some disease and died one after the other.
They sold their personal belongings and finally
returned to Ghana. Mpare said during a visit to the St. Joseph Hospital, he
learnt from Dr Nartey of the Hospital that the beating had affected the main
'vein and had consequently poisoned his blood'.
He has also developed a lump in his neck, and visited
the Swan Clinic where he was referred to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, which
recommended surgery of his neck. Mpare said he had avoided the surgery because
a lady doctor told her it would be fatal.
He pleaded with the Commission to consider his plight
and give him appropriate reparation. Mpare said he did not petition any
organisation because he thought the then military government of the Provisional
National Defence Council (PNDC) would not help him.
When Commissioner Labal reminded Mpare that Ghana
entered constitutional rule in 1993, and that he could have petitioned the
government, Mpare remarked that the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the
constitutional government that came into power after in 1993 was an offshoot of
the PNDC he, therefore, did not expect that that government would consider the
seizure of his bus.
GRi.../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 19 March 2003- Ex-Warrant
Officer Class One Joseph Kwabena Adjei Boadi, a former member of the erstwhile
Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) was on Tuesday mentioned at the
National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) hearing, to have sprayed bullets and
killed five soldiers who were in detention at the Border Guards Headquarters on
June 23 1983.
Counsel for Adjei Boadi, Agyare Koi Larbi, however,
denied the accusation, saying the five whom, he described as dissidents trying
to overthrow the PNDC, died during an exchange of fire between them and troops loyal
to the government under the command of Adjei Boadi.
The witness, Fred Gyimah, a farmer resident at Adenta
in Accra, was a son of the late Samuel Kofi Gyimah, one of the five, said to
have been shot by Adjei Boadi. Fred told the Commission that, his father, a
former Military Intelligence Officer, after hearing a radio announcement from
the PNDC government for all former military intelligence officers to report, he
was consequently detained for three months at the Base Workshop Guardsroom and
then transferred to the Nsawam Prisons.
He said on 19 June 1983, after having stayed in Nsawam
Prison for more than a year, one Giwa staged a military coup and declared a
jailbreak. Fred said his father, Kofi Gyimah, Sgt Atta and three other soldiers
fled to Dormaa Ahenkro where they slept in Sgt Atta's house to continue their
flight into exile in Cote d'Ivoire the next day.
The following day, they were refused entry into Cote
d'Ivoire at the border and they were arrested and sent back to the Border Guard
Headquarters, and detained in the guardroom.
Shortly, his mother heard the repatriation of Kofi and
his colleagues and she sent them food on 21 June1983. Just as the woman had
left and the detainees were having their meals, Adjei Boadi arrived, asked of
the people brought from Dormaa Ahenkro, why they were fleeing, and sprayed the
bullets on them and killed them, Fred said the gateman told his mother who in
turn told him.
According to Fred, his mother who died eight years
later, upon hearing of the tragedy of his father went to the Border Guard
Headquarters and saw a pool of blood at where his father and others were
supposed to have been shot dead.
He said the Officer Commanding the Achiase Jungle
Warfare gave instructions to his grandparents, who were staying at Achiase not
to organize any funeral for their son. Fred stated that after almost 20 years,
the family was yet to organise a funeral for his father. He demanded to know
where the Military had kept the body since then.
He attributed his mother's death to excessive thinking
after the father's death, adding that since the death of his mother, he had to
take care of his five siblings with great difficulty. Their education, as well
as learning a trade was a problem for him.
Fred indicated the plight of the family had been a
guarded secret for almost the 20 years and said he had only voiced it out
because of the establishment of the Commission. Members of the Commission
unanimously expressed their sympathy to him and his siblings over the loss of
both parents.
Gilbert Victor Kudjo Baku, formerly of the Ghana
National Fire Service (GNFS), complained of torture and wrongful dismissal from
the service and denied his benefits from January 1981. Baku of Leklebi Dafor in
the Volta Region said he was dismissed after being framed up of having
misappropriated funds.
John Jacob Atagba of Anloga, a former cigarette
distributor, prayed the Commission for the return of his vehicle that was
seized after being framed up for not paying his income and other taxes.
GRi.../
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Obuasi (Ashanti Region) 17 March 2003- The Ashanti and
Eastern Zonal Office of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) has
received a total of 902 complaints of human rights abuses.
Sampson Amofa-Kra, the Zonal Manager of the
Commission, who made this known, called on people who still have complaints to
file on time to enable thorough investigations to be made.
He was speaking during a two-day outreach programme
organised by the Commission in the Adansi West District at Obuasi to receive
statements from victims of human rights abuse who could not travel to Kumasi to
lodge their complaints.
In all, 21 people whose rights were trampled upon by
past governments, officials and public institutions gave statements to the
Commission. Six of them did so on the first day while the remaining 15
presented their cases on the second day.
Amofa-Kra appealed to the media to intensify its
public education on the work of the Commission to encourage all those who were
at the receiving end of human rights violations to come forward and be part of
the national 'healing process'.
He expressed appreciation to the Adansi West District
Assembly and Shaft FM, a local radio station, for what he said was their
tremendous support for the Commission's outreach programme.
GRi.../
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 17 March 2003-A Minister of
Religion, has called for extension of sittings of the National Reconciliation
Commission (NRC) in all the ten Regional capitals.
Bishop J.N.K. Boateng, Leader of the Gospel Revival
Church of Christ, said even though the NRC is good, the tendency for it to make
the impact on Ghanaians would largely depend on how fast its sittings would be
at the regional centres.
Bishop Boateng was addressing the opening session of a
four-day Crusade held by the Gospel Revival Church of Christ at Sofoline,
Kumasi on Sunday. The Crusade with the theme "Prepared to meet Jesus"
was attended by over 1,500 members of the church drawn from its branches in
Ashanti.
"However if such sittings are extended to the
Regional Capitals many people will be willing to come up with their cases since
such sittings will be closer to their areas of abode.
GRi.../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 14 March 2003- After almost three
hours narration of his ordeal at the hands of military men after the June 4
1979 Uprising, Col Kofi Abaka Jackson (Rtd), a former Commissioner for Works
and Housing, on Thursday prayed the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC)
for proper retirement.
He said he wanted his pension and de-confiscation of
his assets. The Commission and the audience sat through with rapt attention as
the former pilot instructor told his chilling story, punctuated with tears and
humour, which he partially read from a book he had written, "When the Gun
Rules".
Col. Jackson answered questions on human rights abuse
that traversed politics, military relations, physics and engineering, law and
media issues. The former Works and Housing Commissioner, who served from
October 1975 to November 1976, in the then Supreme Military Council (SMC1)
said, he had become diabetic as result of being fed on gari and sugar almost
everyday during his four-and-a-half years incarceration at the Nsawam Prisons.
Col. Jackson said he was suffering a leakage of the
retina of his eyes and had become emotionally weak breaking down in tears more
often, which was not the case. He attributed his wife's current weakness making
her unable to walk a little distance, even to pick the telephone handset, to
overwork and the penury the family went through during and after his
incarceration. The education of his children also suffered, he said.
Col. Jackson said he was among a number of SMC I
office holders that were made a target of military torture after the 1979
Uprising. Jackson, now resident at Dansoman in Accra, said he was living in
Burma Camp when the coup erupted.
After a brief attempt to escape and then securing his
family, he reported to the Airport Station and was escorted to the School of
Technical Training, where he met other officers who had been in government with
him.
"Shortly, four soldiers drove us to the guardroom
and shaved us. General Afari protested, but this young corporal insisted on
shaving us and said they had instructions from above," Col Jackson said.
Col. Jackson said: "This young boy of 20 insisted
on continuing to shave us until the Commanding Officer drove him away. He said
later a young Pilot Officer came with a Corporal and both of them were holding
guns. The Corporal removed his shoes and ordered him to double up and took him
to the guardroom, where they met the Station Administrator, who later left him
in the care of one private soldier.
Col. Jackson said the private soldier subjected those
in the guardroom to a 10-minute drill after every hour. On 8 June at about 1630
hours a group of drunken soldiers marched in Air Marshall Yaw Boakye and
others, shaved them, left some strands and they told them the strands were
their new ranks.
Col. Jackson Jackson said at about 1700 hours on the
Saturday after the Uprising, they had a brief prayer for protection when they
were asked to prepare for interrogation. A number of serious looking soldiers
came for them and led them into a room where, after a file was brought, Captain
Sammy Michelle, Captain Korda, Captain Okaikoi and Pilot Officer Odoi, who sat
behind what looked like a dining table interrogated them.
They asked him to explain why he removed an officer's
wife from a bungalow and why he borrowed a military forklift. He said after
explaining that the officer's wife did not move into the house through the
proper channel, his interrogators told him it was morally wrong to have sent
military equipment to his house.
He said as the interrogation went on other ranks stood
behind him and slapped him and the slaps intensified as he gave his answers.
Col. Jackson said Captain Okaikoi then mounted the table and used a needle to
punch holes in his chest, but he did not bleed.
Okaikoi then asked him why he was not bleeding and followed
it up with more slaps. He then brought out a pistol, and used it to hammer his
skull. After the interrogation, Jackson said he was taken to the guardroom very
weak, and felt out of balance.
He met Nana Bantamahene and a man from Tema. They were
later taken to Peduase Lodge, given a pen and a paper to write their last
messages to their wives. Jackson said Okaikoi gave him a gold pen and told him
that General Kutu Acheampong the immediate past head of state who had just then
been executed used it before his death.
They were then sent to face the Peoples' Court at the
Peduase Lodge. The court was held in a large hall, with green screens on the
sidewalls, with a number of soldiers in the rooms.
"A voice ordered me to sit down, which I did. The
soldiers asked me to plead guilty or not guilty to the questions they would ask
me. I decided to plead guilty with explanation, for if one pleaded not guilty,
he was beaten mercilessly until he pleaded guilty."
Col. Jackson said Odoi took the lead in the three-minute
trial, based on AFRC Decree 3C, accusing him of using his position to acquire a
loan and property, which was eventually confiscated to the state. He was then
ordered outside and after waiting for 20 minutes, he was handed a 60-year jail
term.
Col. Jackson said later one Lieutenant Kusi emerged
and asked him how he got himself into trouble, to which he replied he never
understood all that was happening to him.
Back in Accra, Jackson said he slept briefly at the
Air Force Guardroom, got very furious and decided to appeal against the ruling,
but one Alhassan, who should have brought the papers for the appeal did not
bring them.
Col. Jackson said he was later sent to the Ussher Fort
Prison and kept in the Akuse Cells. He stayed there till 25 July 1979 and
transferred to the Nsawam Prisons.
Col. Jackson described conditions in the prison as
terrible, saying, "in fact, you have to assume that you are an
animal". He said while in prison he heard of the executions of political
leaders of the SMC I and SMC II including General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong;
General Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa, Air Marshall Yaw Boakye and Emmanuel Utuka.
Col. Jackson said while in prison, he came out with
and developed a technology that could run a car on air. He said at one time he
was picked up from prison by a helicopter on the orders of Flt. Lt. Jerry
Rawlings to advise on some military equipment. He was finally released in
January 1984 made the Managing Director of the Ghana Airways in 1991, but
dismissed in 1993. Hearing continues next Tuesday.
GRi.../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 14 March 2003- The brother of a
man, who was killed by a militia man in 1985 on Thursday said the militia put
so much fear into the family that they could not petition the Provisional
National Defence Council (PNDC) to ascertain the reason for the murder.
Alfred Adjetey Tetteh, brother of Harrison Mensah
Teye, who alleged that his brother was killed on orders of Yaw Nkwantabisa, a
former commander of the Militia in Tema, was giving evidence at the National
Reconciliation Commission.
He said he was surprised that though the family did
not still know the person who shot Teye, not even the militia nor members of
the PNDC had expressed their sympathy to the family.
Tetteh said the family gave his brother a fitting
burial according to custom, but the body had deteriorated since the mortuary
attendants would not release it to the family until Nkwantabisa ordered them.
He said he did not see his brother's face before he
was buried adding that his parents died out of sadness. The Witness said the
militia were not performing the duties but rather harassed the communities they
were to protect, especially with their guns.
Tetteh said he did not know Nkawntabisa and when he
attempted to contact him at the Tema Port, a friend warned him that it would
bring him more trouble, as Nkwantabisa was a "Fearful Man".
Nkwantabisa on Wednesday admitted that a militiaman
shot Teye on 31 December 1985 and died on arrival at the Tema General Hospital.
Nkwantabisa said he learnt of the shooting incident on his return from Accra
and the Commission grilled him on why the militia failed to show sympathy for
Teye's family after his death.
According to Tetteh, Teiko Tagoe with whom his brother
worked at Oldman Stevedoring Company to offload tuna at the port reported to
them that a militiaman had shot Teye.
Tagoe told them that Teye was shot when he refused to
surrender some pieces of leftover tuna the company had rejected and he was
bringing home. Tetteh said after Teye's death the family approached the then
Tema District Secretary, Adjei Annan, who handed them to an officer at the
Police Headquarters to attend to them.
Tetteh said the officer treated them with contempt
when they approached him to help with the burial of Teye. He asked them
"to send the case to heaven if they were not satisfied with his
action."
They left disappointed and though they wanted to seek
the services of a counsel to pursue the case, they abandoned it because they
could not afford it. Tetteh said Nkwantabisa was part of the team that observed
the autopsy but did not show any interest in the organisation of the funeral.
He added that Mr Ahia, the Director of his brother's workplace, decided to bear
the expenses of the funeral.
GRi.../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 14 March 2003- The Most Reverend
Charles Palmer Buckle, Member of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC),
on Thursday called on members of the public not to discriminate in showing
compassion to the suffering of witnesses who appeared before the Commission.
He said the Commission was instituted to lessen, if
not entirely erase, the pain of people, who had suffered torture in one way or
another. "It should not entertain issues like the least or most important
people in society," he said.
The Most Rev. Buckle made these comments when members
in the public gallery became agitated as Kofi Agyepong, a witness, was unable
to express himself and was inconsistent in his testimony because he was
apparently over emotional.
The Most Rev. Buckle called on the public to share the
sorrows of those, who were afflicted, as that would go a long way to heal the
wounds of the majority of people in the society.
He advised Agyepong to see members of the Commission's
counselling unit to help him come out of his pain. He had said his uncle, who
was taking care of him was executed during the Provisional National Defence
Council (PNDC) era thus crippling his life.
According to Agyepong in 1985, his uncle, Yaw Brefo
Beeko, who was working with the State Insurance Corporation (SIC), was arrested
and executed by the PNDC for making derogatory remarks about that regime.
He said he had been under the care of his uncle from
1984 when he was 11 years old due to the death of his mother. He said that her
mother being a cocoa farmer left all her property to Beeko to take care of her
seven children.
Agyepong, who is now 29 years old, said a few days
after his uncle was arrested, three men who claimed to be lawyers came on
different occasions to collect money from his grandfather with the promise that
they would help secure the release of Beeko, but to no avail.
He said on 20 May 1986 he heard his uncle's name on
radio, being mentioned among those that had been executed after being found
guilty of treason. Agyepong said a friend informed him that his uncle was tied
to a vehicle and dragged on the street until his skin pealed off. His friend
also told him that his uncle and the others who were executed were thrown into
the sea.
He said his uncle's house was confiscated to the
state, but the family filed a suit at the court and it was returned to his
children. Agyepong said his uncle's death prevented him from having any formal
education. That had led to his unemployment and as such, he could not fend for
himself.
He asked the Commission for compensation him to enable
him to look after himself. General Emmanuel Erskine, a member of the Commission
advised him to forget the past, forge ahead and build a bright future for
himself, instead of dwelling on the pain. He invited Mr Beeko's children to
contact the Commission to help them ascertain the truth.
GRi.../
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Accra (Greater Accra)
13 March 2003-Yaw Nkwantabisa, a former Commander of the Militia in Tema, on
Wednesday denied allegations that he ordered the killing of Harrison Mensah
Teye as alleged by a petitioner to the National Reconciliation Commission
(NRC).
He said John Awuni
Ayarba, the militiaman who shot the man in 1985, was on the run. He said he
locked him up for four months and reported the offence to the authorities yet
no action was taken.
Alfred Tetteh
Adjetey had made the allegation in a petition to the Commission. Giving
evidence to the NRC, Nkwantabisa said on the day in question, he returned from
Accra only to be informed that a militiaman had shot Teye.
He said Teye, who
sustained gunshot wounds in the thigh was not dead by then so he ordered that
he should be taken to the hospital. Nkwantabisa said he followed up to the
hospital where the doctor pronounced Teye dead.
On the role of
militiamen, he said they were to augment the work of 30 soldiers at the port.
He said the militiamen were not fully trained because they were workers and
came for training when they were free. Asked by Dr (Mrs) Sylvia Boye why he
provided arms to the men that were not fully trained, Nkwantabisa said they
carried arms only when they were on duty.
GRi.../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 13 March 2003- The National
Reconciliation Commission (NRC) is considering the case of all 200 former
employees of the then Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (P&T), who
were dismissed by radio announcement in December 1984.
Justice Kweku Etru Amua-Sekyi, Chairman of the
Commission, said the Commission would soon take a decision on the affected
workers and communicate the outcome to them.
Amua-Sekyi made the announcement on Wednesday at the
Commission's public hearing in Accra after John Ayittey Hammond, a former
driver of P&T, had told the story of his dismissal by a radio announcement
on 24 December 1984.
Hammond said he worked with the Corporation for 10
years without any query. He said after the announcement he made several efforts
to find out from the Corporation why he was dismissed, but he had no tangible
reason.
Hammond said four senior officers out of the 200
employees were paid their benefits but the rest, including him, were not paid
any benefits. He said his petition to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative
Justice (CHRAJ) on his plight was without success. He told the NRC that he
wanted his benefits.
Led in evidence by Mrs Juliana Ewuraesi Amonoo-Neizer,
ex-Corporal George Davor, formerly of the Military Police, said one day in
October, 1984 when he reported for duty, he was asked by his Commanding Officer
if there was any link between him and Major Courage Quashigah.
His Commanding Officer, Major Gboglah then told him
that there was a telephone message inviting him to report at the Bureau of
National Investigations (BNI). Davor, who is in his 40s but is a pensioner,
said a vehicle soon arrived and he was driven to the BNI Headquarters at about
0900 hours.
He was made to sit down for about three hours and then
sent to a "small room" located near the 37 Military Hospital.
"Periodically people came to spy on me and at about three o'clock I was
made to face a panel." The panel members comprised one Brigadier Kpetoe,
Commander Baafuour Assasie-Gyimah and Peter Nanfuri, the BNI boss.
He said the panel asked him if he had heard of the
arrest and detention of Major Quashigah and how he felt. Davor said he told his
interrogators that he only knew Major Quashigah as his superior officer.
The panellists then told him that they had had
information that he had conspired to stage a coup to overthrow the Provisional
National Defence Council (PNDC) Davor said at about 2300 hours, he was taken in
a Nissan Patrol vehicle, dressed with a ladies' apparel and driven back to the
BNI and released.
Three days later he was invited again to the BNI, sent
to the BNI Annex, asked the same questions but this time with more seriousness.
He said his interrogators accused him of joining one Agbetor and Zogah to visit
Major Quashigah's house in their preparation to stage a coup to oust the PNDC
regime.
Davor said he denied knowing about the preparations to
stage a coup. He said he had been in Quashigah's house not on the Major's
invitation, but because he accompanied Agbetor as a friend.
Davor said Agbetor was at this point brought in and
was jittery when he (Davor) questioned him on a letter he (Agbetor) said was
written by Major Quashigah inviting him (Davor) to take part in the said coup.
Davor said the next morning he was driven to Nsawam
Prison and kept in solitary confinement for one month and later transferred to
the main prison. Davor said Agbetor was also brought to the Nsawam Prisons. He
added that Agebtor in the presence of Prisons Officers, including the Prisons
Director B. T. Baba apologised to him for framing him up.
He said Baba made him write a petition but it fell on
deaf ears. Davor then narrated a chilling story of how an elderly man, who the
other detainees called Nana, brought from the James Fort Prisons, died
painfully in his cell.
One day at about 2100 hours, he was watching when Nana
began panting for breath. Davor said he called a Prisons Officer to help Nana,
but he refused. The old man continued panting until he died. Davor said the
marks left by Nana, believed to be a chief from Sefwi Praso, were visible at
the cell.
Davor said he spent two-and-a-half years in
incarceration and was prematurely discharged from the military after about 15
years' service. He said upon enquiries he learned that his discharge was an
"order from the Castle."
He said he had been paid his pension since his
discharge but his premature discharge affected his career. Davor prayed the
Commission to adjust his rank to that of his colleagues some of whom, he said,
are Warrant Officers, to get proper pension to cater for his three children.
GRi.../
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Accra (Greater Accra)
12 March 2003- Samuel Othniel Tay II, a legal practitioner, on Wednesday
appealed to the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) to find the brain
behind his arrest in April 1982 and the offence he committed to warrant the
arrest and maltreatment.
He said he wanted
no compensation but added: "Since the day of my arrest, I have realised
that God really loves me because I would have been dead by now. The torture
people went through at the barracks was routine and brutal. As I sit here I
bear no grudge against those who maltreated me."
Tay said all he
wanted was to exorcise the past and that the truth would help him to do so. He
called on Ghanaians to be realistic and not to follow anybody at all who picked
up the gun and proclaimed himself a Messiah.
"With a good
military command, such things as coup d'etats by the junior ranks would not
happen." Tay was giving evidence at the NRC pertaining to events that led
to his arrest in 1982 culminating in him spending four days at the guardroom of
the military barracks at Burma Camp.
He said in 1982,
Mefie Boatyard Company Limited, a fishing company at Tema to which he was the
solicitor, contracted a fishing boat construction company based in the United
Kingdom to build fishing trawlers for the company.
Tay said after
both companies signed the contract, Mefie Boatyard Company Limited imported
marine engines to be fitted into the boats but after six months the company
could not build even one boat.
He said Mefie
Boatyard Company sensing danger confronted the engineers, who in turn reported
the company to the then National Investigations Committee (NIC). Tay said being
the early days of the revolution; he was summoned to appear before the NIC to
give evidence about the contract adding that he told the Committee that he was
just the solicitor of the company.
"I was
discharged but on my way out, soldiers at the gate started to chase me, beat me
with their hands, feet and the butt of their guns and I had to run for my dear
life." He said due to the beatings he received, he wrote a petition to
Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings, then the Chairman of the Provisional
National Defence Council (PNDC), but he did not receive any reply.
Tay said later
three armed soldiers arrested him around 0115 hours at a Hotel at Tesano in
Accra where he had lodged to meet some business partners and took him to Burma
Camp.
"At the camp
I was put in a cell at the Fifth Battalion guardroom with no blankets, bed, or
chair. I slept on the floor for 30 minutes and started to feign sickness."
Tay said he was taken to the 37 Military Hospital where the doctor on duty, who
was a friend, advised the soldiers not to beat him since he had hypertension.
He said the
soldiers, who took him back to the barracks, therefore, gave him a bed and
blanket to sleep on adding that this saved him from being tortured as other
decent people who had been arrested.
"These
people were asked to roll on a floor with chipped stones, while the soldiers kicked,
slapped and hit them with the butt of their guns." Tay said his late
father contacted the mother of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, wife of Flt. Lt.
Rawlings, to find out what his son had done to warrant the arrest.
He added that
Nana Konadu's mother talked to her and she ordered his release. Tay said he
then appeared before the NIC, where he faced a panel of seven members including
Prof Kofi Awornor and Sam Awortwi, who were his good friends but who refused to
tell him why he was arrested.
The Most Reverend
Charles Palmer Buckle, a member of the Commission, invited Tay to make
contributions to the work of the Legal Committee instituted by the Commission
that would help come up with facts as to where the legal sector went wrong.
GRi.../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 12 March 2003- Kweku Baako Jnr,
Editor of the Crusading Guide, on Tuesday said the 31 December 1981 military
coup was a betrayal of the spirit of the 4 June 1979 Uprising.
Baako, giving evidence at the National Reconciliation
Commission (NRC) admitted being part of the June 4 military take-over and said
though it was regrettable, it was unavoidable.
He said on hindsight, Ghanaians would have been better
off without all the military take-overs since independence. He said military
interventions in politics messed up their own integrity, adding that the Chairman
of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), Flt Lt Jerry Rawlings once
admitted that the 1979 coup had destabilized the economy.
Baako said he supported the 1979 coup in the hope that
it was a process to return the country to constitutional rule and that no
soldier became a serving politician. He cited Act 62 of the Military Code, the
Criminal Code of 1960 and the 1979 Constitution, which, he said, prescribed
death for military coup makers and said he got out of the process because it
failed to champion the ideals for which it came.
Baako said he wondered why only eight people were
executed in 1979 for various offences when 257 names had been submitted. Baako
who said he was detained for almost two years at the 48 Engineer Regiment
before he was jailed in various prisons said there were occasions when people
who inflicted torture were intoxicated, "high", or just abnormal.
He accused Chairman Rawlings of watching during the
torture of one Tata Ofosu at the Osu Castle as the torture was filmed by one
Riyadh. Baako said Sarkodie Addo was shot in the presence of Jerry Rawlings,
then as Chairman of the AFRC. Baako indicated he was ready to assist the
Commission when invited, and would not go further into other details until he
made a petition to the Commission.
GRi.../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 12 March 2003- Kweku Sam Kakraba
Baako, alias Kweku Baako Jnr., Editor of the Crusading Guide, on Tuesday told
the National Reconciliation (NRC) in Accra that he believes Mawuli Goka,
accused of treason in the 1980s, was really tortured before he was tried and
executed in 1986.
He was giving evidence in support of Christian Goka, a
brother to the Mawuli at the NRC. Baako told the Commission those operatives of
the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) picked him up on 16 June 1986.
After about more than four hours' stay in the BNI
Headquarters, Peter Nanfuri, the BNI Boss and Annor Kumi threatened that they
would "change his sleeping place". He was then sent to Ussher Fort
Prison.
Baako said he was in the Akuse Ward of the Ussher Fort
Prison with Goka, Kyeremeh Djan, Boamah Gyasi, W. O. Charles Aforo, Private
Koomson and Charles Taylor, the current Liberian President.
Baako said he already knew Goka and Kyeremeh and they
renewed their acquaintances. He said Mawuli told him of the extreme torture he
underwent at the BNI and at one time attempted masturbation to verify if his
torched male organ, slit at the tip could have an erection.
Kyeremeh, he said, told him his own flesh was cut and
given to him chew as meat. When he refused, it was given to Mawuli who also
refused. Aforo, he said, told him he was whipped at the back that left marks
and added that an inmate told him that there were mock executions at the BNI in
the night.
Baako said Mawuli once told him that Ex-Regimental Sergeant
Major Jack Bebli, now Paul Bebli, led a group of security men to transfer him
and three others from the Police CID Headquarters to the Commando House at
Labone Estate and subjected them to severe torture.
Bebli denied the charge of torture under
cross-examination, but pleaded for forgiveness if he had wronged any one. Baako
said upon seeing the marks and the level of torture of his prison colleagues,
he told them that they would be executed at the end of the trial.
Ben Ephson, Editor of the Dispatch, who was then a
reporter with the British Broadcasting Corporation and West Africa Magazine,
told Kyeremeh and Mawuli the same thing three days later after Kyeremeh had
shown him his scars.
Baako spoke of one Evelyn Djan, who was also picked up
by BNI operatives and used as a prosecution witness during the trial of Mawuli
and Kyeremeh, but she ended at the Nsawam Prisons for four-and-a-half years.
Baako said one Riyadh, a Lebanese and an associate
former President Jerry John Rawlings, filmed the interrogations and torture. He
said: The "President (Rawlings) had the tendency to recall the films on
torture of the ex-detainees."
He said he was shocked to see that Riyadh was using a
car belonging the Gokas. Earlier Mawuli's brother, Christian, almost in tears,
told the Commission that Mawuli was on holidays from a university in the United
Kingdom, where he was reading Economics, Political Science and Law.
Mawuli was arrested by the security agents on 30 October
1985, tried by a public tribunal and executed in June 1986 for treason.
Christian, who said he was a mate of former President Jerry Rawlings, intimated
that so far as he could guess, their family had made certain remarks against
certain people after the 4 June 1979 military coup. He said that could have
brought them into conflict with the Provisional National Defence Council
(PNDC).
Christian said after the 31 December 1981 coup, one
Frank Teddy Amewudi, a friend, who had links with the military confided in the
Goka family and insisted that they fled the country for their own security.
Christian said they fled to Togo, but Mawuli returned
to Ghana in 1985. He said soon after Mawuli arrived in Ghana, he was arrested
and placed in custody, followed by a trial and execution.
Christian said information gathered revealed that
Mawuli was tortured. He quoted extensively from media reports in 2000 and
"The Treason Trial of 1986 - Torture and Revolutionary Injustice", a
book written by George Agyekum, the Chairman of the tribunal that tried his
brother. These gave gory details of the torture of the Ussher Forts detainees
at the time.
He prayed the Commission to help the Goka family
locate the remains of his late brother for a fitting re-burial and funeral.
Ex-Superintendent of Police Gabriel Loveridge Quampah told the Commission of
his unlawful and premature dismissal by a newspaper announcement from the
Police Service on a charge of unsatisfactory service.
He told the Commission of his exploits during his 14
years in the Service and said he was given only 27,000 cedis as his
compensation. Quampah said that he did not apply to the court for redress at
the time because PNDC Law 194 A, barred any court to rescind a dismissal
effected by the then government. He prayed the Commission to compel the Service
to retire him with the rank of Assistant Commissioner with full benefits.
Hearing continues.
GRi.../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 12 March 2003- Ex-Regimental
Sergeant Major (RSM) Jack, now Paul, Bebli, on Tuesday testified for the second
time at the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) and denied leading a group
of people to arrest and torture the late Mawuli Goka and three others.
His appearance was in reaction to a testimony by
Christian Goka, brother of Mawuli and Kwaku Baako Jnr., Editor of the Crusading
Guide, which mentioned him as leader of a squad that tortured Goka and others.
They had been placed in custody, tried by a public tribunal and executed for
treasonable charges in 1986.
Baako, a Political Activist and Journalist, was in
incarceration at the Ussher Fort Prison together with the late Goka and other
political activists. He had said in his testimony that Goka told him before his
execution that Bebli led the late James Quarshie of the Forces Reserve
Battalion and Tony Gbeho, described as a close associate of the then Chairman
of the Provisional National Defence (PNDC), to remove them from the Police
Headquarters to the Commando House at Labone, where they were tortured.
Under cross-examination by Joseph Amui, his counsel,
Bebli who claimed amnesia due to an illness, confirmed knowing Quarshie.
However, he denied he ever knew Gbeho, neither had he ever met or known Mawuli.
The packed audience, some standing in the warm public
gallery, greeted Bebli's answer of "I cannot remember" to most of the
questions with boos and jeers, as he denied the allegations of torture.
Bebli said he was suffering from memory loss and was
just beginning to regain his memory. He added that he worked under pressure and
needed the forgiveness of everybody he might have offended in the course of his
work.
In the event, the Most Reverend Charles Palmer-Buckle,
a member of the Commission told the audience that it was possible for a person
to forget most of the things that happened in their lives after suffering from
some kinds of diseases.
The Most Rev. Charles Palmer Buckle said Ghanaians
owed it a duty to support Bebli with prayer and send out serious compassionate
vibes to him. He said that there was a tendency for people perceived as
perpetrators not to show remorse if they feared that they might not be
forgiven.
GRi.../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 5 March 2003 - Warrant Officer
Class One, Joseph Kwabena Adjei Boadi, former Member of the erstwhile
Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), on Tuesday denied ever seeking
spiritual help from anywhere to stage a coup to overthrow the Council, after he
resigned from that military government.
He told a National Reconciliation Commission (NRC)
public hearing in Accra that an earlier testimony in which Olormi Stephen Sarfo
of the Nyamesompa Healing Church said he had consulted the leadership of that
church for spiritual assistance to oust the PNDC was false.
"It is never true; throughout my military life, I
never knew any juju man, prophet or Malam. I believe in my own capabilities.
All those stories are lies to destroy my reputation," Adjei Boadi said.
In his evidence that lasted for more than two hours,
Adjei Boadi said he began associating with the Church at Okyereko in 1972 and
won many soldiers and civilians to it. This was after coming into contact with
the Prophet Kwabena Ekwam, the founder and the then leader, through a friend
who had testified to the healing prowess of the Prophet.
Adjei Boadi said when he was convinced that the
Prophet was doing a good work he saw it fit to offer him protection and
assistance. He also became an active member of the Church.
Adjei Boadi said the Prophet on a number of occasions
claimed he had received Divine revelations to move the church to Pokuase in
1975. Not long after that the Prophet had a problem with the youth of the
Pokuase community and moved the church to a neutral ground, Ekwamkrom, near
Buduburam.
Adjei Boadi said Prophet Ekwam began having problems
with the traditional authorities of his new camp and he used military equipment
then at his disposal to frighten those who were worrying the Prophet and the
church members.
He said he advised the Prophet to secure the necessary
documents on the land after the traditional authorities had taken the matter to
court but Ekwam rejected the advice saying the land belonged to his ancestors.
Adjei Boadi said Prophet Ekwam was once arrested by
the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council and sent to the Osu Castle, but he used
his influence as a member of the AFRC to release him. The then Chairman Jerry
John Rawlings arranged to have the Prophet driven back to his village and
followed it with an apology.
He said Prophet Ekwam was arrested again in 1982 and
together with Olormi were severely beaten. He again used his association with
Chairman Rawlings to have Prophet Ekwam released.
Adjei Boadi said he began having doubts about Prophet
Ekwam and the church when in 1988, Ekwam declared himself God and one woman in
the church, Baaba, Jesus Christ.
He said his doubts heightened and he decided not to be
part of the church again when one day the woman invited him and told him that
he had to marry her because God had spiritually ordained their marriage. Adjei
Boadi said the church was involved in a number of rituals involving long
separation from one's spouse or children, abstinence from certain kind foods
and taking one's bath on a refuse dump.
He also alleged that Prophet Ekwam performed two
abortions for his own daughter whom he impregnated, and after failing to
terminate a third pregnancy for the daughter, Prophet Ekwam poisoned her,
buried her within one hour in a makeshift coffin, and pierced a machete to the
side of her head.
Adjei Boadi alleged that the Prophet Ekwam sexually
abused the women at the prayer camp and impregnated one of the wives of the men
in community and pushed the woman back to the husband. The man, one Otoo later
discovered that he was not responsible for the pregnancy.
After beating his wife up, Adjei Boadi said he
accompanied Otoo to lodge a complainant with the Awutu Beraku Police, who
dismissed it as a civil case.
He said he was later invited to the Osu Castle and the
then PNDC Chairman Flt Lt Jerry Rawlings asked him about the activities of
Prophet Ekwam. Adjei Boadi said he told Flt. Lt. Rawlings that Prophet Ekwam
must be "arrested for blaspheming and seriously interrogated."
He said Prophet Ekwam later packed and went to hide in
the bush. Adjei Boadi said on 4 April 1989, Prophet Ekwam and his men attacked
him and nearly killed him in the process. They were later invited to the
Regional Office of the Bureau of National Investigations for interrogation.
He said during the attack, one taxi driver hit him
with a stick on his head and his assailants fired pistols at him. They threw
stones at him, which hit his ribs, he said, and added that one Police officer
by the name Nkrumah looked on with glee and urged the attackers on to kill him.
Adjei Boadi said during the struggle he never fired even a single shot.
He said surgery was later performed on him at the 37
Hospital. Adjei Boadi said after a number of contacts with Gondar Barracks and
Police Headquarters, he went to then Chairman Rawlings, who after seeing his
predicament ordered the church camp and structures to be pulled down. However,
he said, he reasoned with Flt. Lt. Rawlings, Peter Nanfuri, the BNI boss and Naval
Capt. Assasie-Gyimah, to preserve the place.
The former PNDC member said there were a number of
anonymous letters to the BNI alleging sexual abuse by the church hierarchy and
also burning of the Bible. On his relationship with former President Rawlings,
Adjei Boadi said it was a prophecy come true.
He said it was prophesied in 1969 that he would become
a great friend to a half-cast and so when he became a friend to Flt. Lt
Rawlings he saw it as the fulfilment of that prophecy. He said their friendship
continued until 1979 when Rawlings came to power.
Adjei Boadi, who said he was once an Anglican Sunday
Sunday-School Teacher, said the killing of the three High Court Judges and the retired
army Major excited his anger and spoiled his relationship with the AFRC and the
Rawlings family.
However, Flt. Lt. Rawlings and his wife later came to
apologise to him that they had realised their mistakes and pleaded with him to
come back into their fold. Adjei Boadi said he did not believe in violence but
dialogue in the resolution of differences.
He said he resigned from the PNDC for two reasons: A
spiritual message, which he would not disclose, and a realisation that the
revolutionary principles were not being followed.
Adjei Boadi said he would "look stupid, a stooge
and a sycophant" if he continued to be part of the PNDC. During
cross-examination by Adjei Boadi's counsel, Agyare Koi Larbi, he said he
collected his bulk pension when he resigned, without any special emolument and
had no house. He had a 504 Peugeot caravan, which he used as his personal car,
from Chairman Rawlings.
GRi…/
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By Alfred Marteye – GRi Correspondent
Accra (Greater Accra) 4 March 2003 – A former Baker and Proprietor of
Pre Na Dzi Enterprise and now unemployed Madam Mabel Kaitoo, alias Abena
Kitiwaa on Tuesday told the National Reconciliation Commission that her life
had now become like that of a beggar, as she had to depend on relatives and
friends to run her life. “I even depend on my brother for medical fees and
sometimes my son-in-law for daily bread”, she said.
Briefing the Commission, she said that in 1979, she lost her business in
Cape Coast when Rawlings staged the coup. Madam Kaitoo who begun her statement
in tears said “342 bags of flour that I had ordered from Cape Coast was seized
and confiscated without any apparent reason.
According to her, she was elected the leader of the Zone 6 Bakers
Association in Cape Coast following the inefficiency of the then leader. Madam
Kaitoo said during the 1983 farming, there was a scarcity of flour and the
avail one were being sold to government agencies and departments at that time.
She said the Association decided to contribute money to buy flour in
bulk and share amongst themselves. “That was when the whole trouble started”,
she remarked. Madam Kaitoo said one Kwame Forson, who was then the District
Secretary seized 80 bags of flour and she (Madam Kaitoo) was accused of
diverting about 10 bags of flour. “Knowing that was false I did not react to
the allegation.
According to Madam Kaitoo said she was arrested by one Aboagye together
with two PDC Officers and two Police Officers and taken to the Council in
Accra. At the Council, Madam Kaitoo said she was subjected to severe slaps by
some PDC members and later taken back to a Police Station in Cape Coast without
any charge.
She said she later in the Daily Graphic, which appeared on the 25
October 1983 with a front-page headline “Baker suspended for Indiscipline”.
Knowing that the story was false she went to query the then publisher of the
Daily Graphic urging him to write a rejoinder to cleanse the minds of those who
had read the stories.
She said the publisher refused saying “hey, Madam don’t you know that Daily
Graphic is a governmental property”. She said effort to get the Ghanaian Times
to her in this wise proved futile, thus she reported the case to a Military
Officer, who she named Officer Quarshigah of the Military Police and then
Officer Tackie, all to no avail.
Madam Kaitoo said she was later on attacked and beaten by a group of
people she believed to have been organised by Kwame Forson, the District
Secretary. “I reported to the Gondar Barracks and the taxi driver, Billy who
drove her to the Gondar Barracks was later arrested and interrogated by the
Police accusing him of conspiracy.
She said the case was investigated and was freed of her charge. Madam
Kaitoo said the Coordinator of the District Secretary apologised on behalf.
“But I was not compensated”, she remarked.
She said on one occasion her husband was attacked and beaten. According
to her, she had to save her husband’s life by firing a gun belonging to her
husband, which she took from their room, thereby dispersing the mob who had to
run for their dear life at the shot of the gun.
At this point a member of the Counsel for the Commission asked her
“Where did you learn how to shoot a gun? She replied, “It is only God who can
tell”. She said she and her husband where taken to court and she was asked by
the Magistrate to sign a bond that she would never shoot a gun. Madam Kaitoo
said she refused and told the Magistrate that should what caused her to shoot
the gun happen again she would shoot. “Who knows? My husband might have been
killed if I had not shot the gun.
Concluding, she told the Commission that though her two children are now of age, all those atrocities she experienced made her unable to properly cater for her two children. General Erskine and other members of the Commission appealed to Madam Kaitoo to support her allegation with receipts, documents and at least two witnesses for the necessary help to be provided her.
GRi…/
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