Indiscipline, root cause of coups - Lt. Col Dawuni

Lieutenant-Colonel Emmanuel Dawuni (rtd), a former Central Regional Commissioner in the Acheampong Regime on Tuesday, identified indiscipline among the rank and file of the military as the root cause of coup d'etats in the country.

Col. Dawuni, who was testifying before the National Reconciliation Commission in Tamale, said loyalty and discipline should now be the watchword of the military.

"It is not advisable for the military to get involved in politics", he said, adding; "any soldier who wants to do politics should retire from the military and join the civilian group to campaign to be elected to political office".

Col. Dawuni told the Commission that during the June 4 uprising in 1979, he and other officers who served in the Acheampong Regime were picked up by soldiers and brought to the Air Force Base in Accra and kept in military custody.

He said he was later sent to the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) Headquarters for interrogation and finally transferred to the Peduase Lodge at Aburi in the Eastern Region, where he faced what he described as a "Kangaroo Court".

He said a screen shielded the panel members and as such, he could neither identify any of them by faces nor voices so he only answered questions posed to him.

Col Dawuni said he was given a 20-year jail term but this was later reduced to 10 years. However, he said, he eventually served a period of four years and was released.

He said his Volvo car and a combined harvester were confiscated to the State and the car was later allocated to the Ministry of the Interior, which also in turn assigned it to the Ghana Prisons Services.

He told the Commission that he spotted his car being used by a Prisons Director as an official vehicle adding that the car was later auctioned to a Prisons Officer.

Lieutenant -General Emmanuel A. Erskine (rtd), a member of the Commission, commended Col. Dawuni for his courage and service to the country.

He urged him to consult with members of the Northern Regional Branch of the Veterans Association on how to help restore discipline in the military.

Col. Dawuni appealed to the Commission to compensate him for the loss of his car and combined harvester.

Alhaji Iddrissu Kpabia, a former Northern Regional Chairman of the People's National Party (PNP), told the Commission that after the overthrow of the Limann Administration his 11 tractors, three combined-harvesters, three private cars and five houses were confiscated to the State

He said soldiers also took away large quantities of his paddy and other foodstuffs and cattle as well as milk and sugar, which were kept in his store and meant for distribution to hospitals, prisons and schools.

Alhaji Kpabia, popularly known as "Babuban Chairman", said he took refuge in Burkina-Faso in the wake of the December 31 Revolution but life was difficult for him there and so he decided to go to Togo where he was given a refugee status.

He said he later left Togo for Nigeria and while there, one of his wives visited him and gave him a letter purported to have been signed by Mr Kwamina Ahwoi, who was then Chairman of the Citizens Vetting Committee (CVC), inviting him to come back to Ghana to continue his farming activities since there was famine in the country.

On his return home, he said he visited Mr Ahwoi at his office in Accra and he gave him a letter to be sent to the National Investigation Committee, where he was vetted.

He told the Commission that after vetting, the National Investigation Committee also gave him a letter to be brought to an investigation committee in Tamale.

Alhaji Kpabia said when he came to Tamale; he was again vetted and issued with a letter ordering him to pay two million cedis into "PNDC Account 48" at the Agricultural Development Bank in Tamale.

He said in 1992, the five houses, six tractors, one car, and a combined harvester, which were confiscated, were released to him but he found all of them in a very deplorable state.

Alhaji Kpabia appealed to the Commission to help retrieve the two million cedis he paid into the PNDC Account 48 and the rent they collected from his five houses and adequately compensate him.

A petitioner, Mumuni Yakubu, now a farmer, told the Commission that on February 8, 1982, he was in his house when a conservancy labourer came to inform him that soldiers had set the Tamale Central Market on fire.

Mr Yakubu, who was then a trader, said when he rushed to the market place he saw several armed soldiers surrounding the market, which was still burning and when he attempted to enter to retrieve some of his items he was warned by the onlookers that he was risking his life.

He said he, therefore, left the scene only to return to see that the fire had burnt all the items in his shop including 12 cartons of bicycle tubes and tyres and six boxes of bicycle spare-parts.

Mr Yakubu, who said he could not place any value on the items, also petitioned the Commission on behalf of his late mother, who also had a shop at the same market.

He said his mother had 70 bags of salt and some cash in the shop, which were all burnt by the blaze, adding; "following the loss of her property and money, my mother had a shock and later died".

Mr John Iddi Nindow, a cobbler, who also had a shoe shop at the Market, said all his equipment including 400 shoes, which were brought to him for repairs by customers, were burnt.

He estimated the loss at 30,000 cedis at that time and appealed to the Commission to assist him to re-equip the shop to enable him to make a living and also offer employment to the youth.

Sitting continues on Thursday.