Transfer of Nkrumah's remains was without our consent- Family member

Sekondi, Aug. 14, GNA- A witness at Thursday's sitting of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) at Sekondi said the remains of Ghana's first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah was removed from its original tomb at Nkroful to the mausoleum in Accra without the knowledge of the family.

Nana Bulumia-Twum Kwasi, a charted accountant, who said he is a nephew of the late president, said the remains of Dr Nkrumah was removed under the pretext of sending it to a hospital in Accra for rehabilitation.

He said due to many years of neglect, the remains were becoming decomposed and so when the message to rehabilitate it was received, no one protested. However, the people became disappointed when they later heard that it was not going to be sent back.

Nana Kwasi told the Commission that soldiers, looted Dr Nkrumah's property and that of his immediate family members who lived with him at the Flagstaff House after his overthrow.

The items included jewellery, research findings, and ornaments, Nana Kwasi said and appealed to the Commission to help the family to trace those properties.

He also wants the district capital of Nzema-East, Axim to be reverted to Nkroful.

He called for the rehabilitation of a family house that was destroyed by soldiers after the 1966 coup, while a palace built by Dr Nkrumah at Nsuaem, which is now being used as a police station, should be reverted to the family.

Nana Kwasi urged the Commission to recommend compensation and gratuity for the late President and recognition for the family. When asked by the Commission to clarify some of the claims in his statement, he could not do so.

For instance, he could not substantiate his statement about the 25 gold bars, which he said, were given to the late president by the Ashanti Goldfields Company, saying it was a rumour.

He was told that investigations conducted had proved that Ashanti Goldfields had never given any gold bars to the late President as gifts. Some members of the Commission also told the witness that television sets and computers said to have belonged to the late Dr Nkrumah and among items looted were not found in the country at that time.

Prof Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, member of the Commission, told witness that it was up to the family to look for the Will of the late President to know what it entailed and not the business of the Commission to do that.

She also said the Justice Apaloo Commission recommended that some of the property of Dr Nkrumah be returned to the family. The house of Madam Fathia Nkrumah has also been returned to her, she said.

Madam Theresa Nyamekye, another witness told the Commission that in 1979, soldiers at Moree Junction in the Central Region seized bundles of khaki and other fabric, which she bought in Accra. She said was sent to a place in Cape Coast popularly called "firing squad", and was tortured there and later dumped in a small cell at the Cape Coast police station.

The following day, the soldiers came back to tell her that, they found that she did genuine business, and asked her to go, adding that most of her wares were stolen by the soldiers when they were returned.

Mr Ambrose Yankey Jnr, who said he was one of Dr Nkrumah's security guard, told the Commission that it would be proper to compensate the late Presidents security corps at that time saying, some of them either died or lost their jobs in the course of their duty.

Mr Yankey Jnr. said he was one of the loyal security personnel of Dr. Nkrumah who decided to stay with him in Guinea after his overthrow in 1966 until his death in 1972 when they brought his body to Ghana. He said on their arrival, they were detained at the Peduase Lodge for about one month before they were released.

He told the Commission that he and other security personnel lived at the Switch Back Road and on their return to the country after six and a half years in Guinea, his properties, including jewels had been taken away and 800 cedis in his bank account frozen.

After petitioning the Ombudsman, he was paid some compensation and placed on the pension scheme, he said.

Mr Samuel Kwabena Boateng of Kwesimitsim, near Takoradi, said on four occasions between 1978 and 1983, soldiers seized goods from his store at the Takoradi Market Circle and this affected his life. He appealed to the Commission to recommend adequate compensation to be paid to him.

Madam Nana Awortwe a disabled resident at Apremdo told the Commission that soldiers shaved her with a crude instrument at the Apremdo barracks where she was later flogged several times. She said in 1981 she was selling maize on credit to kenkey makers and that one day, some soldiers who had gone to buy kenkey from one of her customers, were not satisfied with the size of the kenkey ball. Madam Awotwe said she was in church when the soldiers came for her to the Apremdo barracks.

She said the soldiers ushered her into a room at the barracks and started shaving her with a crude instrument while applying saliva, to soften the hair.

She told the commission that the kenkey seller who was then pregnant was also arrested and whipped.

Madam Awotwe said the group again took her to the Apremdo barracks market and the Apremdo town market and flogged her, before she was released.

She said she later started trading in flour but soldiers again intercepted her and collected the goods.

Mr Samuel Kwamena Tabil, a farmer at Wassa Manso, said in 1982 five soldiers, led by one Sergeant Avornyo, alias Alhaji Avornyo, came to the town and warned them to stop cultivating on a one and half mile square land of cocoa farms in the area, saying it had been acquired by the government and that anyone who wished to work on it, should apply to the military.

Mr Tabil said the community ignored the message and continued their cocoa and food crop farming.

He said this infuriated Sgt. Avornyo who visited the town with more soldiers every weekend to terrorise the farmers as a result of which most of them deserted their farms.

He said during one of such threats, a soldier stepped on the foot of one Atom, a native who was very short and stretched him with the intention of making him tall.

Atom got swollen and died two days after the incident but the soldiers continued to terrorise and steal both the cocoa beans and food crops, he added.

Mr Tabil said he reported at the Apremdo barracks, where he was given five soldiers to accompany him to arrest Sgt. Avornyo but they rather found three people living in a hut within the farms with guns and in military uniforms, claiming that Sgt. Avornyo brought them there. He said that same night, five soldiers surrounded the entire village and that one Obimpeh, who was then returning from his farm, was shot dead by the soldiers.

Mr Tabil said Sgt. Avornyo later gave the land to his tribesmen who assisted him in harvesting the cocoa and food crops.

He told the Commission that Sgt. Avornyo died three years ago.