Fright killed my grandson - Witness

Accra, Jan 13, GNA- Madam Abena Ampofoa Awal, a witness at the National Reconciliation Commission, on Tuesday said her grandson died from fright, when soldiers attacked and looted her house and store after the December 31, 1981 coup.

The Witness, who said a Good Samaritan at Abrewankor, a suburb of Accra is housing her, said her daughter, whose son died, had stopped communicating with her.

In tears, Madam Awal said information from friends of her daughter, who is resident abroad indicated that she is not prepared to come back to Ghana and does not want to give birth to another child.

Madam Awal said she was a trader at Obuasi and returned from a trip only to be told by her aged mother that soldiers had stormed her house and store and ransacked their contents.
The soldiers heckled and shouted at her three-year-old deceased grandson and made away with a number of items, including a quantity of jewellery, packed clothes from her two wardrobes, a three-in-one sound systems and money.
She said the soldiers also moved to her store and made away with 400 full and half pieces of wax prints in addition to her Datsun vehicle.
Witness said some people were brutalised to death during the incident that she said, took place during a military operation codenamed "Operation Dragnet."
She said one Kwadwo Grushie and Yaw Kwaduo lost their lives and a number of houses were also confiscated.
Madam Awal said she was afraid of the soldiers because of the brutalities they unleashed on women at the time and therefore, did not report her loss to any authority.
She said soldiers laid some of the women they arrested on tables and lashed their genitals.
Witness registered a strong indignation and repulsiveness towards military coups, and prayed that no coup should ever taken place again in Ghana.
She appealed to former President Jerry John Rawlings to give her one vehicle in replacement of her vehicle that the soldiers took away. Madam Awal also appealed to Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings to give her at least one of her cloths.
The Witness expressed worry over the strained relationship between her and her daughter.
She prayed the Commission to recommend appropriate compensation for her.

Another Witness, Madam Gladys Ashorkor Larbi, from Tema Manhean, who said she was an announcer and campaigner in the Ga language for the then Progress Party, said she was arrested and detained for six weeks without charge after the overthrow of the Party in January 1972. She said she was then nursing an eight-month baby and had to leave her behind.

Madam Larbi said the police arrested Dr Konuah, then Member of Parliament for the area, and one Madam Gedo on the same day. The police demanded to have her passport and then searched her house at gunpoint looking for the passport which she said she did not have and for a gun.

The witness said she was kept for some time in police custody and while they were being transferred to prison the Police threatened to shoot them but Dr Konuah intervened and the police spared them. She said, while in Accra, they were taken to the Usher and James Fort prisons and they were served with dry gari and fish. Madam Larbi said her aged mother told her that, while she was in incarceration some gentlemen came and made away with all party cloths and paraphernalia in her room. She said she had developed a morbid fear for the police since then. Madam Larbi prayed the Commission for to recommend an appropriate compensation for her.

Another Witness, Mr Samuel Laryea Kwashie Abbey, who said he was the Acting Managing Director of State Farms, said he was prematurely retired without any benefits in 1982.

He said, he was accused of interfering with the work of the then government of the Provisional National Defence Council. Mr Abbey said after he had written to the Ghana Commercial Bank to dishonour cheques signed by Mr B B D Asamoah and Dr Adjei Marfo both PNDC functionaries, he was invited to the National Investigations Committee, but the Committee did not ask him any question for three months.

He was asked to hand over the management to one Squadron Leader Sowu, who he said refused to accept the handing over notes on the grounds that he was brought in to see to the liquidation of the State Farms rather than take it over.

Mr Abbey said after writing to Professor Kofi Awoonor, the Chairman of the Committee on the delay, he was invited to the Committee, was questioned at gunpoint and accused of refusing to let the government do what it wanted with the State Farms. He said he was asked to see Prof. Bortei Doku, who, he said advised him to leave the company.

Mr Abbey said he worked with the State Farms for eight years, but was retired six years earlier without any benefits by a radio announcement. He prayed the Commission to recommend compensation and other benefits due him from the State Farms.

Ex-Inspector Francis Nsowah of the Ghana Police Service and Mr Robert Nii Sai Botchwey formerly of the Ghana Commercial complained about their incarceration in prison following offences ascribed to them and later disimissed from their respective employments.

They prayed the Commission to recommend benefits and compensation for them.