I stayed in the bush and fed on raw cassava for nine days - Witness

Kumasi, Sept. 11, GNA- A petitioner on Thursday told the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), how he stayed in the bush and fed on raw cassava for nine days to escape arrest by soldiers and members of the CDR at Nkoranza after he was falsely accused of jubilating during the 'Giwa' abortive coup in 1983.

Mr Stephen Adu-Donyina, a former organiser of the defunct People's National Party (PNP) said he finally ended up in an eight months self-imposed exile in Cote D'Ivoire. He was giving evidence at the public hearing of the NRC in Kumasi on Thursday.

The petitioner said he was in the house when he heard that some soldiers and CDR members were coming for him on an allegation that "I went into jubilation immediately after Giwa had announced his take over of the administration of the country".

"I therefore slipped away and took refuge in my farm where I picked signals about the approach of human beings from noise made by fowls". He told the Commission that anytime the birds flew, it indicated somebody was approaching.

Mr Adu-Donyinah said it was his wife's sister who arranged and smuggled him out of the farm in her car.

"I dressed like a woman to join the car and succeeded in passing through a road barrier mounted by the CDR unnoticed.

He said he first went to an in-law at Sampa and later crossed into Cote D'Ivoire.

The petitioner said prior to this incident, he had been forced to go on an earlier self-imposed exile in Burkina Faso.

This was immediately after the overthrow of the Limann administration and the subsequent radio announcement by the then junta leader, Flt-Lt Jerry John Rawlings ordering ministers, deputy ministers and party functionaries to report themselves to the nearest police station.

Mr Adu-Donyina said during his first exile, soldiers seized his 100 bags of cement and three short guns.

The wife, according to the petitioner, became so traumatised by those events that she developed hypertension and died seven years ago.

Another witness, Mr Stephen Donyina, former Brong-Ahafo Regional Chairman of the PNP, told the Commission that soldiers seized his farming machinery including two tractors, three ploughs and harrows after the December 31 coup.

They also took away all his personal property as well as those of his wife and children, drove them out of his 10-bedroom house, feasted on his 350 goats and took away roofing sheets and boards meant for his building project, he said.

He said he returned in 1984, and appeared before the Citizen Vetting Committee (CVC) where he was cleared of any wrongdoing. Before the seizure of the farming equipment, the petitioner said, he was producing 1,500bags of maize, a large quantity of yams and other food crops on his 500-acre farm.

Mr Donyina wants the NRC to assist him restore his tractors.

"If even the government owing to the enormous financial responsibilities cannot give them back to me free of charge, they could be sold to me on credit, as I will be able to repay in two years". He said the farmland was there intact.

The petitioner had a word of advice for the government and it was that, it should go to every length to strengthen national security. He said coups have not brought any benefits to the country and history has shown that they are not even in the interest of the coup makers themselves.

"Where are General Afrifa, General Acheampong and the others?" he asked.

General Emmanuel Erskine, a member of the commission, said, "I hope the whole country fully support your sentiment".

Another petitioner, Madam Adisa Sena, a nurse, said her family had forgiven those who killed his brother, Lance Corporal Abass Sena in 1983.

"We have given everything to Allah".

She told the commission that his brother who joined the army in 1979 was arrested from the house by a group of soldiers and that was the last time they saw him.

"We heard he was killed and buried in a mass grave".

Her evidence was corroborated by ex-corporal Godwin Abayita Ayeriga, who said he saw the bullet riddled bodies of lance corporals Abass, Ben Umaro and Ibrahim at the 37 Military Hospital where he was working.

Another witness, Emmanuel Agyei Agyekum, who formerly worked at the Flagstaff House and Peduase Lodge as a guardsman, told the Commission that he was kept in detention after the 1966 coup for about one year without trial.

He said soldiers who arrested him kicked him in the waist and stomach with the butt and muzzle of their rifles and that had left him with chronic pains in the waist.

Sitting continues tomorrow Friday 11 Sept. 03