How Soldiers Trapped Boakye Djan's Brother ...With 100 Guns

DETAILS ARE emerging that the band of soldiers and policemen who stormed Major Kojo Boakye-Djan's house on October 31, 1985 planted some 100 guns there in a deliberate attempt to convict the family members.

"After mid-night of October 31, 1985, a security force, comprising heavily armed soldiers and policemen as well as commandos, in their bid to victimise us stormed the house where Auntie Evelyn Djan, Kyereme Djan and I (Ata Boakye) were residing."

Ata Boakye, Managing Director of Sun City Restaurant and also a victim of the October 31, 1985 alleged coup attempt, disclosed this to the Chronicle last week.

He said the 100 rifles deliberately planted in the house by the group was used as a pretext to victimise them.

He stated that though Major Boakye-Djan (rtd) may have his own problems with Ghanaians, it is painful for the innocent family members to lose their lives through a faked coup attempt which they knew nothing about.

He told the Chronicle that before they became aware of the presence of the security force in their house at Community II, Tema, the weapons had already been planted there.

He said the armed band immediately lined them up and handcuffed them in the night, led them into three waiting military vehicles and drove to Accra to the BNI headquarters.

"I can vehemently protest and defend my statement with clear evidence that the guns were planted in the house by the brutal soldiers, except an old rusted pistol in the house that belonged to his late grandfather, the owner of the house," he pointed out.

He said the guns that were planted in the house were the only evidence the PNDC government and its kangaroo court had against them.

He stated, he, (Atta-Boakye) and Evelyn Djan were shattered physically and emotionally due to the heinous treatment meted out to them by the brute commandos of J. J. Rawlings.

This, he said, interrupted their personal development educationally and professionally since he did not complete his 'A' level education at Tema Secondary School due to the constant harassment and pressures that the Junta piled on him.

Evelyn Djan also lost her job as a Laboratory Technician after her release from prison He further stated that some people whose association with Major Boakye- Djan was cordial were also affected in one way or the other, while property of others were confiscated to the state.

He revealed that the late Corporal Baffoe, a former body guard of Major (rtd) Boakye-Djan was killed without any reason, adding that a personal friend of Kyeremeh Djan, Godwin Mawuli Goka, the son of Rev. Dra-Goka, one time minister of state in the Nkrumah regime, was also convicted and killed though he was an innocent man!

The execution of Kyereme Djan, then a final year student of KNUST, destabilised the family of Boakye Djan in a way, because he was a promising young man and a pillar in the family.

"Do we have to be convicted and punished for our relationship with the enemy of Rawlings and his group," he queried.

He said the death of Kyeremeh Djan also created a big problem for his wife, who had just then delivered a baby girl, Maami Abena Djan, in Kumasi.

"Can reconciliation work in the country if the family members of these victims are not compensated?" Boakye asked.

When asked whether the reconciliation should address the alleged crimes committed by ex-President Rawlings alone, Boakye quickly pointed out that even worse things happened during the regime of Nkrumah, who is described as the father of our nation, Ghana.

Referring to the sad story of Dr. J. B. Danquah, he said Danquah was incarcerated and killed in prison for opposing some of Nkrumah's policies and ideas.

Atta-Boakye, however, said if the NPP government truly means reconciling the nation, the families of the executed generals, murdered judges and the hundreds of people who have suffered untold hardships in the hands of our past leaders since independence must all be given prior attention or otherwise it is one big, useless and meaningless exercise.

He observed that the reconciliation exercise seemed to address and reconcile only with the families of the two former heads of state and the six (6) senior army officers executed by the defunct AFRC government.

He added that during the October 31st upheaval, his uncle, the late Kyeremeh Djan, also a junior brother of Major (rtd) Kojo Boakye Djan, now exiled in Britain, and many other innocent Ghanaian citizens were either shot by armed soldiers for no apparent reason or were fortced into exile.