"Assassie-Gyimah Tortured Me"

Yesterday, the NRC met to hear only a few cases. The commission normally does not meet on Mondays but due to the Independence Day holiday on Thursday, the commission had to sit.

At the sitting, an ex-Lance Corporal, George Kodjo Adjei told the commission that he was arrested by Naval Captain (Rtd) Assassie-Gyimah and others and was detained for five years without trial in 1985.

He told the commission that Assassie-Gyimah who was then a Lieutenant Commander, one Lance Corporal Opoku Isaac and others came to his barracks in the Volta Region one night and ransacked his room. He said he was blindfolded and handcuffed in the back and taken to Accra. He said in the vehicle the soldiers put their legs on him.

Lance Corporal Adjei said he was taken to Asutsuare Commando Base and was stripped naked and tortured by the soldiers. Still blindfolded and handcuffed, he said he heard a voice like that of one Major Maxwell Ogbamey who interrogated him. He said he was alleged to have kept some weapons which he denied.

"My Lord, at this stage I cannot describe the beatings. The second bout of beatings began. This time someone began to step on my genitals and said he would disconnect it. Assassie-Gyimah asked them whether I was cooperating."

He told the commission that Assassie-Gyimah held his head with a rifle while he was lying on the ground, "and told me if I don't cooperate I would be eliminated or would eat my own flesh."

He said Assassie-Gyimah told the people to kill him in the afternoon because he was not co-operating. He said he was driven to a bush to be killed but was later taken back to the Gondar Barracks in Accra and to the Bureau of National Investigations.

He said a few days later he was taken to the Ussher Fort Prison and was detained for five years. He said he was released by amnesty and was given ?400,000 as entitlement in 1997. He said his wife was sacked from the barracks when he was incarcerated and his child died some few days after his release because he had no money for his medical bills.

Naval Capt. Assassie-Gyimah who could not listen to the full testimony of his accuser would be given the opportunity to cross-examine him tomorrow with one Twumhene who also accused Assassie-Gyimah of similar abuses.

Pastor Olormey Steven-Safo of the Nyamisum Healing Church in his testimony to the commission, said he was unlawfully detained with many others following allegations of rioting. WO1 Adjei Buadi, a former PNDC member was also involved in the riot..

He said they lost their properties while in detention and their wives were banished from the village, Ekwamkrom near Budumburam. He said their farms were taken over by the State Housing Corporation.

The former Inspector General of Police, Christopher Dewornu who appeared before the commission denied allegations by the chief of Klikor Traditional Area, Togbe Christian Afaglo that he ordered his detention during the PNDC era..