"Rawlings might not have been aware" - Witness

Accra (Greater Accra) 13 February 2003 - Nana Baffour Ahima, a witness at the National Reconciliation Commission today told the commission that he thinks Rawlings might not have been aware of some of the brutalities and atrocities meted out to individuals and group of people when he was Chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).

"I realised that during the revolution, a lot of people did so many bad things in the name of Rawlings because he was their leader. One Isaac Frimpong alias "red light" once went to my uncle during my detention and collected 5m cedis from him with the promise to help get me released from prison which he never did," he said.

Nana Ahima made this remark when he narrated his detention and other atrocities that he experienced during the era of the PNDC. According to him, on 4 January 1982 he travelled from Takoradi to Accra and whiles in Accra, he was told that soldiers had kidnapped his wife and children and taken them to Takoradi Air force base.

He also gathered that his wife and children would be killed if he did not report at the Air force base. He said friends and relative advised him not to go to the Air force base, but as a family man, he reported himself to the soldiers at Takoradi.

On his arrival, Nana Ahima said he was dragged out of his car by some soldiers and beaten severely with the butt of a gun. He said his wife and children were later released at 6pm while he was released at 12midnight. "No reason was given for my arrest," he said.

Nana Ahima said in 1982, citizens of Takoradi woke up one morning only to see about 20 people including one Issaka killed and left on the street. He said people in the town remained in-door until about 9am. He said that same morning; he had an anonymous call ordering him to live Takoradi or risk being killed. He said he therefore left for Accra and later abroad to seek political asylum.

Nana Baffour Ahima said that on 7 October 1988 he had returned to Ghana from a business trip in Brazil. He said on arrival at the airport, he saw Yaw Osafo Marfo who was then the Managing Director of Bank for Housing and Construction and while they were chatting one Okine Addo pointed at him and ordered some BNI officials to arrest him and that it was under the orders of then BNI boss, Peter Nanfuri.

He said he gave his wallet to Osafo Marfo and asked him to tell his wife about what had happened. Nana Ahima said he was taken to the BNI office where he waited until 12 midnight and yet had not seen the BNI boss. He said at about midnight he was forced to sleep in a room without a bed.

Nana Ahima said in the room, the BNI officials asked to remove his dress; while removing the dress, he said he was hit on the back of his head. He said he fell and in the process had a deep cut on his forehead. He said he was taken to hospital 3 days after the incident. Nana Ahima he was detained 2 months and all this while he has not seen his wife and children. He said they were frustrated whenever they attempted to visit him.

According to Nana Ahima later in the second month of his detention, he was summoned before the BNI boss, Peter Nanfuri who asked him if he knew J. H. Mensah. He said he was again taken back to the BNI cells after the interrogation.

He told the commission that his detention resulted in the loss his businesses, 3 vehicles and a shipment of two containers of corned beef that he had order to via Cote d'Ivoire got tampered with be cause he was not around to see to the clearance of the goods. Nana Ahima told the commissioned that his mother collapsed and died instantly when she heard he had been arrested since he was the breadwinner of both the nuclear and extended family.

When the a member of the commission asked him why he had not reported any of this to CHRAJ or the authorities for them to look into the matter, Nana Ahima said the situation during the PNDC era was not permissive. He said that soldiers of today are more discipline than those in the PNDC era. He praise government for the international image it has attained for the country and called on everyone to help maintain that image and advised President Kufuor to always listen to the sentiments of the people and plan towards that.