PNDC Killings: For Ritual Purposes - Ex-WO Adjei-Boadi

WOI Joseph Adjei-Buadi, a former member of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) and one time close associate of Flt. Lt. J.J. Rawlings, has made startling revelations about how Rawlings and his cronies operated during the AFRC and PNDC eras.

Speaking to the ADM after appearing before the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) yesterday, WOI Adjei-Buadi said Rawlings who was then the Chairman of the PNDC and his comrades resorted to "adult and child sacrifices" to sustain the 1979 uprising and the 1981 coup.

Pressed by the ADM to cite instances of rituals by the revolutionaries he said, "The murder of the three judges and the army officer is a clear example. That was what Joachim Amartei Kwei told me. He told me that if he had known that the whole thing was meant for ritual purposes he wouldn't have done it." Amartei Kwei was later executed by firing squad.

Three High Court Judges and a retired army Major were abducted and murdered on June 30, 1982. Three soldiers, Johnny Dzandu, Tony Tekpor and Amedeka were tried by a Special Investigations Board (SIB). Dzandu and Tekpor were also executed while Amedeka managed to escape.

Adjei-Boadi described his relationship with Rawlings during the early PNDC days as "...very close and he described me as the pillar of the revolution. There was a prophesy in '69 that I would get a friend who is half white and black, and that something would happen in this country by the two of us so when he diverted later it hurt me a lot."

When asked what he would do if Rawlings extended a hand of reconciliation to him, he told ADM, "I would receive him wholeheartedly but I would have nothing to do with him politically or spiritually."

WOI Adjei-Buadi who was the co-coordinator of the Armed Forces Defence Committees had earlier told the commission that because he was a staunch believer in God he objected to the move and most especially the execution of the former Heads of State. He said the execution of the Generals was planned by then Chairman Rawlings, Boakye Gyan, Mensah Poku, Mensah Gbedemah and Baah Achamfuor. The others are Commander Appalo, Alex Adjei and Owusu-Boateng.

"They (Generals) were innocent lives so you don't have to just misuse them. Let the person commit treason and deal with the person."

He said due to the misunderstanding between him and members of the PNDC especially Boakye Gyan and Mensah Poku over the execution of the Generals, he voluntarily resigned. He said he joined the Nyamesompa Healing Church and went into farming at a village called Ekwamkrom near Budumburam.

WOI Adjei-Buadi said Rawlings later sent a group of "commandos" to the village to kill him. "When they came they approached me calmly. I talked to them and they realized that I was not somebody that deserved the kind of mission they had been assigned to do. So they left without telling me anything. It was when I was invited to Burma Camp to collect my pension arrears that I met the driver who brought them there and he disclosed to me what actually happened."

Led in evidence by his counsel, Mr. Agyare Koi-Larbi (MP), WOI Adjei-Buadi was invited to the commission to react to allegations by Pastor Olormey Stephen Safo of the Nyamesompa Healing Church that he terrorized them during the PNDC era. He denied the allegations. In Monday's sitting, Pastor Olormey recounted harrowing details of how the ex-Warrant officer terrorized them.

Recounting how he once killed a man, WOI Adjei-Buadi who described himself as a "no nonsense man" he was very "vigilant" over junior ranks who defied officers orders. He told the commission that a soldier once went to a night club and took ?400,000 from a cashier and shot the cashier without any reason. WOI Adjei-Buadi said when the incident was reported to him, "I queried him in my office and shot him dead."

He told the commission it was an order to prevent other ranks from visiting such gruesome acts on civilians.

A Bekwai based baker, Madam Mabel Kaitoo alias Abena Kitua in her testimony to the commission said members of the Peoples Defence Committee (PDC) seized her three hundred and forty-two bags of flour in 1976.

She said she was detained alongside some members of the Bakers Association for four days following allegations by one Kwame Forson that they were selling above the "control price".

Hearing continues today.