Witness wants cost of his drinks seized paid

Accra, Nov 6, GNA - Mr Emmanuel Antwi-Barima, a Witness at the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), on Thursday prayed the Commission help him get a the money value, or the quantity of assorted drinks that were seized from him at Aflao Border Post after the December 31 1981 coup. He said the drinks were made up of 45 cartons of beer, 10 crates of Guinness, 15 crates of Coca-Cola and Fanta and five crates of canned malt.

"I also need my empty bottles," he said.

Mr Antwi-Barima, who said he then ran a drinking spot at Jasikan in the Volta Region, said although he paid the necessary duties on his drinks which he had brought from the Republic of Togo, one W. O. Ampofo, told him that his superior officer, one Captain Appiah needed the drinks to serve the military personnel at the border post on the day of the Revolution.

He said despite his insistence to have the drinks, Capt Appiah would not give them to him and to his shock two days he saw Capt Appiah in a revelry with some female students of Kadjebi Asatu Secondary School, serving them with some of the drinks.

A Graphic Artist, Mr Samuel Obuobisa Bampoe, who used to work with the Graphic Communications Group, another Witness, said he was dismissed from the company after the 1966 coup because he was a student of the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute.

He said, even though, it was the Company that had sent him to the Institute to learn to become a cartoonists and his Editor in Chief, Mr Larweh Therson Cofie had asked him to do a story on the closure of the Institute after the coup, an armed soldier accompanied by a guard dog, handed his dismissal letter from the Personnel Department of the Company on February 28, 1966, the day the story of closure of the Institute was published.

Mr Bampoe said he worked for the Graphic Communication Group, formerly Graphic Corporation, for four years and although he contributed to then Provident Fund, he had not been paid his contributions to date. He prayed the Commission to help him have his contributions, and perhaps add complimentary copies of the Daily Graphic and the Mirror newspapers on regular basis.

Ex-Customs Officers bemoans his early retirement without entitlements

Accra, Nov. 6, GNA - A witness, Mr Charles Okordie a former official of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) who appeared before the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) on Thursday said he was forced to retire at the age of 45 years without being paid his entitlements.

He appealed to the Commission for compensation to enable him to fend for himself and his family adding: "I need my money right now including 17 years interest.''

Mr Okordie said he was employed into the service in 1965 and that in 1986, when he was an Assistant Finance Officer and had worked for 21 years, he read in the Daily Graphic that he was to go on retirement without any explanation.

He said he was asked to fill an Asset Declaration Form and was vetted but no adverse findings were made against him.

The Witness said he later wrote a petition to CEPS to find out the cause for his premature retirement but did not receive any response. Mr Benjamin Asensu, a former General Police Constable Class Two, also told the NRC that he was arrested in 1967 for allegedly rejoicing on hearing the abortive coup of April 17, 1967.

He said he was then stationed at Have in the Volta Region adding that he was kept in custody for four days without being given food. The Witness said according to the Officer in charge, his name was not included in the ration book hence his refusal to give him food. He said on the fourth day he was transferred to the condemned cells of the Ho Prisons where he stayed for three weeks among 30 other remand prisoners.

The Witness said during the third week the Attorney General sent a letter for his release but one Mr Sarbah, then Director of Prisons, refused to release him.

He said he was kept in prison for three more months before he was released adding that he petitioned the then Inspector General of Police for redress but nothing came out of it.