"Now, I am like a beggar" - Madam Kaitoo

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.