NRC continues sitting in Sekondi

Sekondi, Aug 7, GNA- Unlawful seizure of property and extra judicial killings by soldiers especially during the era of the PNDC, were the main stories witnesses told at Thursday's sitting of the National Reconciliation Commission at Sekondi.

Mr Albert Kwesi Cudjoe, who was an electrical contractor and sold electrical goods, told the Commission of how in June 1979 soldiers from the Takoradi Air Force Station seized electrical goods worth more than three million cedis from his store at Takoradi.

They demolished the building housing the store, took away his car, and detained him in a guardroom at the Apremdo Barracks where soldiers assaulted him for three days.

Mr Cudjoe said he was told by some of the soldiers that he had been brought there to be dealt with for dealing in "kalabule" items, a charge he denied.

He was later sent to the Market Circle where he was flogged in public. Before he was sent to the Market Circle Mr Cudjoe said one of the military officers told him to attend to nature's call and urinate so that he would not "disgrace himself in public as others do when they were flogged in public."

Another soldier whom he met in the guardroom advised him to muster courage and endure all the brutalities that would be meted out to him because he is a man.

Sometime in 1991, the owner of the building that housed his store wrote to him and demanded payment for the damage to her house. Mr. Cudjoe said he sold his own building to pay part of the money the landlady demanded. He said he falls sick constantly as a result of the ordeal that he went through and he is now being taken care of by his two children because he cannot work.

The witness, who said he has forgiven those who maltreated him, also blamed civilians for all that happened to him.

Mr Cudjoe said some civilians encouraged the soldiers to behave the way they did and that people in the Western Region are noted for hatred and envy.

Mr Christian Appiah-Agyei, a member of the Commission however, disagreed with witness on this point and said this phenomenon was not limited to the Western Region.

He said during the period of military brutality whilst innocent people were being flogged, others stood by and rejoiced or clapped to encourage such atrocities.

"We should all work hard and pray that this should not happen again, and even if it does we should be able to neutralize it," he said. Mr Joseph "stone" Tachie-Menson, a former security officer in the First Republic, spoke of how he was arrested and maltreated by soldiers when the CPP government was toppled in 1966.

He said he was picked by soldiers at Cape Coast where he had gone into hiding, brutally assaulted and imprisoned for one year at the Sekondi Central Prisons.

He was denied medical treatment and as a result of this he became blind in the right eye.

Mr Tachie-Menson said he worked for three years before the incident and had not been given any compensation.

Mr Francis Kwesi Eshun, who worked at the Grains Warehouse Company at Tema, told the Commission of how he was arbitrarily dismissed and paid only three months salary in October 1986.

The only reason given for his dismissal was that it was "management decision."

He told the Commission he was locked up in BNI cells at Kanda in Accra for one month without any interrogation or told what he had done. Later he was transferred to the Ho Prisons and the Ussher Fort Prisons where he spent 15 months.

It took his wife and family members more than three months before they could locate him.

Mr Eshun said at one time he was in the same prison ward with Mr Charles Taylor, President of Liberia and Mr John Ndebugri, a former PNDC Secretary for Agriculture.

Mr Eshun said he was later informed that he was a suspect in a deal at the Grain Warehouse that belonged to the Bank of Ghana.

Mr Charles Johnson, 25, told the commission that on January 21, 1984, armed soldiers shot Mr Boye Johnson, his father who was then a seaman, dead in front of the Princess Cinema in Takoradi.

He said his mother had told a group of soldiers who came looking for his father that he was at his new building site close to the Princess Cinema.

Mr Johnson said someone informed his father that armed soldiers had invaded his house so he (Father) left the site and headed for home holding his hand. He said his father met the soldiers near the Cinema and he was shot dead

"My father was shot and died on the spot while still holding my hand," Mr Johnson said.

Mr Johnson said Mike, his senior brother who was also at the scene, freed him from the hands of his dead father but just then, a military officer arrived on the scene and reprimanded the group for killing the wrong man.

The group left on realizing the mistake but did not formally apologize to the family or the children of the deceased.

Mr Johnson said out of fear the entire family moved into a relative's house within the same vicinity and did not know whether their father was buried or not.

He told the commission that Mike also died at the same spot where his father was killed after months of mourning at the spot while their mother had become traumatized.

Mr Johnson said his mother is presently afraid of any security personnel, has developed high blood pressure while five of his eight brothers died in succession after the murder of their father.

Madam Victoria Sam, a Nigerian, said she was a trader who sold rice, sugar, flour and provisions in large quantities in her store at the Tarkwa Mobil Filling Station.

She said in 1982 she was in her store when a truckload of soldiers arrived. Ten of them came into the store, brought out a piece of paper and mentioned her name.

Madam Sam said as soon as she responded, they called her "kalabule woman" and started selling her wares which she said was worth about four million cedis.

She said all the items were sold for between two and five cedis though some sold at 25,000 cedis in those days.

Mad Sam said after the sales, her hair was unevenly cut while she was flogged in front of her store and ordered to dance to music they played, while her six-week-old baby cried.

She said her ordeal lasted for three hours and her table, was used for the flogging of other traders nearby.

Mad Sam said her husband, a Ghanaian, who witnessed the incident from the balcony of their house, sneaked out quietly and left her to cater for their 10 children.

She said her husband died about eight months after the incident from stroke, while their children could not continue their education due to financial problems and later developed mental problems. Bishop Charles Palmer-Buckle, a member of the Commission, told the gathering that God gets offended when motherhood is degraded in such a horrible manner. "How do you subject a six-week old nursing mother to such inhumane treatment and expect to live a peaceful life," he said. He, therefore, reminded all that anytime a woman is abused, it affects God directly and we must all guard against it. 07 Aug. 03