My late husband never recovered to lead normal life - Widow

A widow on Thursday told the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) that her late husband, Opanin Kwadwo Sakodie never recovered to lead a normal life after his severe physical torture in 1979 by soldiers in Sunyani.

"He was bedridden and had difficulty in speaking when he was released after six months detention at the Sunyani Military Barracks for hoarding," she said. Madam Akosua Serwaa Sakordie denied that her husband was hoarding.

She told the Commission at the public hearing in Kumasi that on his release, the family first sent him to a private hospital in Kumasi.

When he was not responding to treatment, they transferred him to the Northern Region and then to Nkoranza in the Brong Ahafo Region for herbal medication. However, there was still no improvement in his condition.

Madam Sakordie said they finally sent him to his hometown at Adako-Jachie in the Ejisu-Juaben District, where he died about two years ago.

Recounting the incident, she said one afternoon in 1979 a group of six armed soldiers came to the house in a military vehicle in the company of their eldest son Kwadwo Adubofour.

She said Adubofuor identified the father and they pounced on him and started brutalising him.

Madam Sarkodire said she attempted going to the rescue of her husband but she was pushed down. One of the soldiers stepped violently on one of her toes with his boot resulting in a cut that eventually deformed the toe.

The soldiers, she said, after that took away all the goods that were in the shop as well as those that were being kept in their house for lack of space in the shop.

She stated that Opanyin Sarkodie was sent to the Sunyani Military Barracks where he was shaved and severely beaten.

The incident, she said, led to the collapse of their business and this adversely affected the education of their children as none of the eight children received any formal education.

When Nana Owusu Sekyere alias Nkontonkyi, Chief Linguist at Jamasi, near Asante Manpong, took his turn, he said soldiers used pliers to remove his right middle toe in 1982.

He also lost a tooth as they slapped, kicked and punched him.

"I was made to roll on the ground and to frog jump," Nana Sekyere said.

The soldiers, he said, carried away all the drugs in his shop at Asante Manpong; 10 bicycles and an unspecified amount of cash and personal effects including the jewellery of his wife.

He said he had since then never worked. When asked by one of the Commissioners how he had been surviving, he sent the crowd in the public gallery laughing when he replied: "God has been feeding me through my wife."

Nana Sekyere said the soldiers accused him of dealing in drugs, he was not by law permitted to sell.

When Madam Emma Enin, a Trader at Bantama, to her turn she recounted the ordeal she went through at the hands of some military personnel in Kumasi.

She said she was for three weeks kept at the military barracks and severely beaten adding that she now had a hearing impairment, suffered from chronic headache and waist pains.

Madam Enin said in 1979 she was trading in rice from the Northern to the Southern part of the country. She said she used to send ladies panties and priming cream to the North and then buy rice for sale in Kumasi.

She brought 25 bags of rice from the North, disposed of 20 bags and the remainder was kept in the house.

Madam Enin said the soldiers accused her of hoarding and subjected her to merciless beatings.

General Emmanuel Erskine, a Commissioner, said it was sometimes difficult to understand how, "our own people could do this their mothers".

The Commissioner advised her to continue to have faith in God, who had sustained her since then.

Ex Police Sergeant Anthony Kwasi Owusu appealed to the Commission to assist him to get either re-instated or for his retirement benefits to be paid to him.

He said he was wrongfully dismissed from the Police Service in 1988 with 32 others.