NRC Counsel restricts Witness to written statement

Accra, Nov. 4, GNA - Mrs. Juliana Ewuraesi Amonoo-Neizer, a Counsel at the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) on Tuesday skillfully restricted a Witness from digressing and giving evidence into an area which was not part of his original written statement to the Commission.

She however, suggested to the Witness, Mr Magnus Nortey Ocquaye, a former Prison Officer, and the Second-In-Command of the Usher Fort Prison to file a separate petition on the information he said he had from Amartey Kwei, Tekpor, Dzandu and Senya, all detained in 1983, in connection with the murder of the three high court judges and the retired army major in 1983.

The Witness said he was detained twice. He said he met Amartey Kwei in his first detention, and the three others on his second detention at the headquarters of the Bureau of National Investigations.

According to Mr Ocquaye, security intelligence personnel were aware of the knowledge he had of the murder of the three high court judges, and for fear of being arrested, he went into voluntary exile in Nigeria in 1983 for 12 years.

Mr Ocquaye who was arrested for apparent negligence of duty that led to the 1983 Giwa jail break said he learnt from the West Africa magazine that a prison recruit on practical attachment at the Usher Fort smuggled the weapons that were used for the jailbreak.

He said on two occasions, the Prisons Headquarters permitted one Riad who led civilians to the Prison to check for weapons suspected to have been smuggled there.

He said he and other officers protested against the said checks by the civilians because it was not normal, more so when about 74 crack soldiers, and other political detainees were being kept there. Mr Ocquaye said one of his superiors, Mr Kuiire, stopped him on his way home with a message that he should see the then Secretary for the Interior, Mr Kofi Djin.

Mr Ocquaye said upon the orders of Mr Djin, he parked his car within the Ministries while he drove him over to the BNI to face a panel of interrogators, led by Mr Peter Nanfuri, then the director of the Bureau.

He said he was questioned on the jailbreak to which he denied any complicity. However, he was detained for six weeks, and later dismissed with others from the Prisons Service through a radio announcement. He mentioned the others to include Wemegah, Heshi, T K Boison, Shardow.

Mr Ocquaye said he was not paid any benefits until 1997, when he applied to the Prisons Service Council for reinstatement into the Service, or pay him his benefits.

He said his pension was paid with retrospective effect from August 1983, but described it as meagre. However, payment was discontinued as at August this year, he added.

Mr Ocquaye said he was about to go to Cardiff in the United Kingdom for further studies at the time of the jailbreak, and that this chance eluded him as a result of his dismissal.

He stated that he would have been the Director General of Prisons if he were still in the service, and prayed the Commission for re-instatement.

"I am still young, I want to go back to the Prisons Service, not to be reinstated as Director-General but as Director," said the Witness.

On another occasion, Mr Ocquaye said personnel from the BNI searched his house for seditious materials, and later arrested him to the BNI, for facilitating the visit by relatives of Flying Officer Ben Odoi, who was then in detention at Anomabo in the Central Region in September 1982.

The Witness said he told his interrogators, led by Mr Nanfuri that he was not aware of any standing orders disallowing visits to the Flying Officer, and added that although the panel exonerated him, he was detained for three months.