Omanhene says he went blind following severe beating

Kumasi, Sept. 9, GNA - The National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) on Tuesday heard a narration of the humiliation and severe beating the Paramount Chief of Duayaw-Nkwanta, Nana Boakye Tromu was subjected to by a group of soldiers in 1979 on a framed up charge of having insulted the then Chairman of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings.

The chief has gone blind as a result of the beating. A witness, Mr Kwame Boateng alias Kassim, a farmer, told the Commission at its public hearing in Kumasi that Nana Boakye Tromu following a directive on national radio by the AFRC Chairman that all communities should organise communal labour, summoned him to his palace. He said as the then secretary of the youth association of the town, the Omanhene asked him to organise the people for a communal labour in the town.

The Witness said he did as Nana Tromu directed and that there was a massive turn out by the people.

Mr Boateng said on Monday, August 6, 1979, precisely two days after the communal labour, at about 1400 hours he was in the bath house when he heard someone asking: "Where is Kwame Boateng?"

On answering that he was in the bathroom, two soldiers wielding rifles kicked down the door and pulled him out naked to the yard where one Lieutenant Sebu was standing with six other soldiers.

"The Lieutenant demanded to know from me if I was the one the Chief asked to beat a gong-gong to insult Chairman Rawlings."

He said he flatly denied doing that and all of a sudden the soldiers swarmed all over him kicking and punching him.

"They took me to the Chief's palace while still naked and when Nana Boakye Tromu saw me, he asked, Kwame, can I help you?"

"At this point, they started beating the Chief and this attracted a big crowd who watched helplessly as Nana was being pummelled. "The soldiers after sometime bundled us into their truck and drove us to where they picked me so that I could put on clothes."

He told the Commission that rainwater from a previous night's downpour had collected in a big gutter just in front of his house and the Omanhene was forced by the soldiers to drink from it.

"The soldiers told us that they had been sent to pick us to Sunyani to be killed and as we set off, they stopped at every community we came to.

"They will pull us down, torture us and make mockery of us as the people who stood by watching shed tears."

Mr Boateng said at the Sunyani barracks, they were severely assaulted, adding "we were so humiliated that when they served us with meals the next day, we refused to eat".

He said they were later taken to see an Officer who after hearing their case ordered their release.

The Witness said his right hand was weakened and that currently, he could not lift anything. Besides, he cannot carry any load on the head. He said his wife, who became very traumatised, collapsed and was revived at the hospital.

Mr Boateng wants the Commission to recommend some assistance for Nana Tromu whose life he said, had become "very miserable". He said some Elders of the town, who were litigating with the Omanhene over his stool, framed him up.

General Emmanuel Erskine, one of the Commissioners, drew attention to the need to "respect our elders particularly Chiefs, who are custodians of our culture".

He said beating a Chief in public in front of his own people should never happen. It is a disgrace to the stool.

General Erskine said: "It is consoling to all of us that in spite of the humiliation, he is still the chief."

He appealed to Ghanaians to use the courts to seek redress of whatever problem they have and should not use soldiers.

The General also advised soldiers that it was in their own interest that they stayed away from civil matters.

When Ex-army Sergeant Nicholas Andrews Osei of 5BN recounted how he was held in unlawful detention from 1983 to 1991.

He said while in detention, the Prison Officers kept moving him from one prison to the other.

Mr Osei said on one occasion, he was mercilessly beaten by Mr B.T. Baba and some prison officers until blood started oozing from his nose and ears.

He said he had a broken eardrum, adding, as a result of the poor conditions under which he was kept at the prisons, he developed stomach ulcer and hypertension.

Mr Osei he and some other soldiers were picked up for interrogation following the Giwa abortive coup and after 40 days in detention, they were released but were re-arrested three days later.

He told the Commission that he was cheated in the payment of his gratuity and demanded the payment of his correct retirement benefits. Another petitioner, Mahama Umora Dumba, a Wa Petty Trader, told the Commission that soldiers in 1982 shot him several times in an apparent attempt to kill him.

He showed to the Commission scars caused by bullet wounds on his thighs, left hand and buttocks.

The pellets, he said, were removed following the application of traditional medicine.

The Witness said he was in his shop at Wa one morning when two soldiers walked in. One of them saw a mosquito coil and expressed interest in buying it.

He said he told the soldier to pick it free of charge but he insisted on paying for the coil.

"The soldier brought out one cedi, put it in my money box and removed a change of 30 pesewas. It was at this point that I was to go through the nightmarish experience".

He said the soldier accused him of having sold the coil above the control price and ordered him to carry a big stone.

"They also brutally assaulted me and as I made a daring attempt to slip away, I was shot in the thigh, I fell but got up. Once again, a bullet caught me on the buttocks and as I surrendered, another shot rang out of the soldiers' weapon, this time, hitting me on the hand".

Chris Atim masterminded my detention - Contractor

Kumasi, Sept. 9, GNA - Mr Ibrahim Sefa, a Wa contractor on Tuesday told the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) that Mr Chris Atim, a former member of the PNDC masterminded his 21 months incarceration in 1982.

He said he was accused of being an enemy of the revolution and was neither tried by any court nor was any statement taken from him. The witness said it took Mr Atim and a group of soldiers about two hours of consultations in the office of the then Upper Regional Secretary, Mr John Ndebugri, to bring up the false charge against him. Mr Sefa, who was giving evidence before the NRC at its public hearing in Kumasi, said Mr Atim and the soldiers came out with the charge after the Navrongo prison authorities refused to keep him in the prison without a committal warrant.

According to him, he was in his house one day at about 0300 hrs when he heard a big bang on his door.

It was followed by an order to either open it or it was going to be forced open.

He said he was compelled to comply with the order and upon opening the door he saw nine armed soldiers.

"They asked that I surrender my guns but I told them, I did not have any gun. They were unconvinced and mounted a search of my room". The search did not yield anything and so they took him away to the police station and instructed one Inspector Awuah to put him in cells. Witness said the soldiers later came for him at about 0500 hrs, put him in a military truck and drove off to Navrongo.

He said after covering about 16 miles, the truck stopped and the soldiers moved away to a distance of about 200 yards where they began consultations.

Mr Sefa said but for the intervention of one Corporal Farouk, the soldiers would have killed him there.

He said the soldiers seized his 250 bags of cement, one and a half tonnes of iron rods, a large quantity of emulsion and oil paint, 330 pieces of "wawa" boards and other materials meant for the construction of eight nurses' quarters as well as his vehicle.

Mr Sefa said he believed he was arrested because, "I was a successful man"

The Most Reverend Charles Palmer Buckle, one of the Commissioners commended the prison officer who refused to take Sefa into prison without a committal warrant.

"If we have more people respecting the rules under which they are supposed to work, I hope we will not be having some of these cases we are now hearing".

Another witness, Yakubu Abdulai, a former Wa East Constituency PNP organizer said his senior brother collapsed and died later from shock as a result of warning shots fired by soldiers who had come to arrest him (Abdulai) in his house in January 1982.

He said they were eating together at about 2100 hrs at Bulinga when the soldiers stormed the house.

Witness said he was detained for 15 days at the Wa police station. He also lost his herd of cattle and had his tractor seized. The tractor was later returned to him in a state of disrepair and he had no other alternative than to auction it.

Abdulai asked the Commission to help restore his lost property. Ex-Sergeant Nabubie Ibrahim Buma of the 5th Battalion of Infantry narrated to the Commission how the seizure of his lawfully acquired Nissan Homer bus made him lost interest in the job he was doing as a soldier leading to his early retirement in 1990.

The ex-soldier, who joined the military in 1971, said he bought the vehicle from his own resources.

He said he was on border patrol duty when he was asked to report at the 3rd Infantry battalion in Sunyani.

"I took permission from my platoon Commander and went only to be placed in guardroom, drilled and later had my vehicle seized in 1982", he said. 09 Sep. 03