I saved Kwesi Pratt- Ex soldier

Accra, Aug.20, GNA - Mr Augustus Owusu-Gyimah, a former soldier on Wednesday said he saved Mr Kwesi Pratt Junior, Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper from Police arrest and possible death in 1990.

Mr Owusu-Gyimah told a National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) public hearing in Accra that both he and Mr Pratt were then members of the then Movement for Freedom and Justice, a movement that was very critical of the then ruling government and seeking to restore democratic rule. He said the Police came to the Police Headquarters, where he and Mr Pratt were detained in police cell, and attempted to smuggle Mr Pratt from the cell, but he struggled with them and they eventually left Mr Pratt alone.

He said he has developed hearing problems in the left ear as a result.

Mr. Owusu- Gyimah registered strong abhorrence for military coup d'etats, and urged Ghanaians to reject them, saying soldiers must maintain peace if they want to have their peace.

He however, admitted that he at one time had been involved in an abortive coup to overthrow the government of Kotoka to restore the Government of Kwame Nkrumah.

He said he was charged with subversion, and tried by a tribunal of which General E A Erskine, then an officer in the Army was a member of the panel and condemned him to death by firing squad.

General Erskine, now a member of the National Reconciliation Commission, was present, but did not excused the Commission during the testimony of Mr Owusu- Gyimah.

Mr Owusu-Gyimah, said his sentence was later commuted to 40 years imprisonment, but he was granted pardon by the government of the late General I K Acheampong, and was released on July 1973, after serving a jail term of six-and- a- half years.

He said he did not go back to the Army after his release, but was officially written to and honourably discharged in 1980.

Mr Owusu-Gyimah said he later went into trading, but soldiers from the Fifth Battalion came to his trading store in Accra and ransacked goods, comprising 150 bags of sugar, 85 bags of imported rice, 45 cartons of sardine and 40 cartons of Eveready batteries. Other shops were also affected.

He said he followed up to the Barracks, but the Officer Commanding, Lt. Col. Oteng told him the operation carried out on "instructions from above."

The former soldier said the soldiers never brought the goods back, neither did he get payment for them. Mr Owusu-Gyimah said he later went into the distribution of soft drinks, but after the June 4 1979 coup, an order was issued for distributors to send their bottles to the Ghana Bottling Company, which refused.

Later Flying Officer Tackie led a team of soldiers to his store and seized 175 crates of bottles and a number of footwear items his father brought into the store for sale to the Arakan Barracks.

All efforts to get the bottles and the boots back were unsuccessful. When Commissioner Prof Abena Dolphyne asked Mr Owusu-Gyimah his position on his failed coup and his stated abhorrence to coups, he remarked that his was a different one meant to restore an ousted legitimate government.

To a question from Commissioner Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu if his pardon from a government that ousted another government was legitimate, hesitant Mr Owusu-Gyimah replied that the wishes of the State must take precedence over his to move the nation forward.

Another former soldier, Mr Theodore Kwame Bebli, complained of his release without trial from the Army, after being detained for two days and threatened with death for allegedly being a witness to a smuggling incident.

The Commission ruled out his complaint of an adverse testimonial upon discharge in his written petition, when he presented another one, in which there were favourable comments about him in the discharge book. Another Witness, Ex-Lance Corporal Isaac Kwadwo Yeboah, formerly of the Boys Brigade told the Commission, said he left the Army in 1974. He said he was domiciled in Abidjan. He said in 1986, he was on journey a home to visit his ailing father, but military personnel arrested him at the Enchi Border whey they discovered he had been an ex-member of the Boys' Brigade.

They seized his money of 12,00 CFA, 500 dollars and 600,000 from him and his shirts.

He said he was detained for two weeks at the Enchi Police Station, without charge and soldiers peeped through the window and constantly made fun of him.

The Ex soldier said he was later transferred to Myaoung Barracks, at Apremdo and he was subjected to severe slaps and beatings. They also attempted to shave him with broken bottles, but he struggled with them, and in the process, he got wounded, The wound has left a permanent big scar on one of his fingers.

He said he was later transferred to Accra and again locked up in the Field Engineers Regiment Guardroom, where he was severely beaten and later subjected to interrogation on methods that are used to overthrow governments Ex-Lance Corporal Yeboah struck him with a baton, and another Corporal Atta pierced him with a bayonet.

After detaining him for two weeks, he was taken to the Bureau of National Investigation for interrogation and was released later His petition attempts to the then Chairman of the ruling Provisional National Defence Council over his detention and his lost of belongings was unsuccessful.

He said, he later had audience with Captain Kojo Tsikata, over his missing monies and shirts and the Captain asked him to get away from him go to the cemetery for them.

He said he was not given any money for transport back home. Mr Peter Nanfuri, the BNI Boss then gave him 50,000 cedis for transport. Ex Lance Corporal Yeboah said he had been having blood in his stool and he arms, occasionally ceased to function, resulting in a stroke and now lives on charity