Woman says Appenteng forced her to chew salt

Ho, Jan 29, GNA- Madam Aku Sebie, a farmer and salt winner at Kuluedor near Ada, on Thursday told the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) that she was forced by one Stephen Appenteng of Vaccum Salt to chew a hand full of salt and drink a cup of smelling and bitter liquid for winning salt at Awudikope.

She said as a result of that, for the past 20 years, she gets frightened anytime salt winning is mentioned to her.

Madam Sebie, who said she was five months pregnant at that time, told the Commission that Appenteng slapped her and 15 others with a sandal and asked them to gaze at the sun in the presence of some soldiers who used belts to lash them when they were dazed.

She said they were taken on a tipper truck to a military camp where they were drilled and made to leapfrog.

''We were locked in a guardroom where I had a miscarriage. I used my cloth to wrap the foetus and deposited it in a rubbish can.''

Madam Sebie said she was forced to keep the miscarriage from the soldiers out of fear of what they might do to her and instead used her cloth as a pad to stop the blood flow from the miscarriage.

She said on the third day when she was not feeling well she informed a Sergeant who took her to a military hospital but out of fear she kept her situation from the soldiers who attended to her. Madam Sebie said on her return home after six days she was informed that her salt was burnt.

She said she informed her husband about the miscarriage and was taken to the Battor Hospital.

Asked by Prof Henrietta Mensa Bonsu, a member of the Commission, if it was not hard-hearted to subject a pregnant woman to such ill treatment, Madam Sebie replied that Appenteng's mind was made up and that he would have killed her.

"Have you forgotten the past", asked Uborr Dalaful Labal, a member of the Commission.

"Yes what can I do", replied Madam Sebie.

Madam Korleki Obuor of Lolonya near Ada also told the Commission that soldiers seized her truckload of salt and threatened to soak the consignment with water.

On reaching Tema the soldiers told her they would kill her if she did not leave them so she left them and sought refuge at Ada-Foah. Madam Obuor said the seizure of her salt on another occasion by some people from Vacuum Salt led by Samuel Appenteng almost made her to commit suicide.