I Lost My Voice & Job Due To Torture

Madam Elizabeth Adongo, unemployed, on Tuesday told the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) that she lost a job as a teacher after she had lost her voice as a result of seven months of torture by a police, military and Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) officers in 1985.

Madam Adongo, a native of Tamale, who spoke with much difficulty, as she had to literally strain her voice to be heard, also had difficulty turning her neck to look in the direction of counsel for the NRC who led her to give evidence.

She also told the Commission that she had difficulty hearing clearly, adding that she was still undergoing medication at the 37 Military Hospital, where she has been told that it would only take a miracle for her voice to become normal again.

In her statement to the Commission she said sometime in 1985 she was at her home at Tamale with her mother when news got to them that her brother, John Adongo had been admitted to the 37 Military Hospital in Accra. She said her mother could not come so she bought some items for her to bring to the brother in the hospital.

On her arrival at the hospital she was refused entry but the items were collected from her to be given to her brother. "I then returned to Tamale and a few months later a certain man came to my home and said he had a parcel for me so I followed him to where he said the parcel was.

"On our way we passed through the BNI office in Tamale where I was given a seat and the man entered the office and returned to me." She said the man then asked her to follow him to where the parcel was, but on their way seven policemen with guns surrounded her and the man disappeared.

Madam Adongo said the policemen took her to the Tamale Charge office where she was literally pushed into the male cells and kept there for a night, adding that whilst there some of the detainees molested her and attempted to sexually abuse her.

She said from the Charge office she was taken to the Tamale Prisons where she spent another night and then sent to the airport and flown to Accra and to the BNI Headquarters.

"From the BNI office, I was moved to and fro between the BNI cells and the Legon Police Station cells for a period of seven months and some weeks and during this period I was molested and interrogated about the whereabouts of my brother, which I did not know," she said,

Madam Adongo said at the BNI office, she was made to fill a form and put in a small cell where she could not see anything, adding that for over a week she was starved, and not allowed to bath or change clothes. "Anytime I requested for anything they shut me down by either shouting on me or hitting me with the barrel of the gun," she said.

"At a point the policemen at the Legon Police Station made sexual advances at me and when I refused they used my refusal as an excuse to molest me more." She said in the course of time I was brought before a 12-member panel made up of men and women who questioned him about my brother. She said he told them she was not allowed to see him at the hospital and had since not heard from him.

Madam Adongo said one night she was at the Legon Police cells when Mr. Peter Nanfuri, then Director of BNI, called for her and apologised to her for the torture she had gone through.

She said she was then sent back to Tamale on a State Transport bus and has since then been receiving medical care regularly at the 37 Military Hospital for her throat, neck and ears without support from anybody. "I used to teach in a school at Nwani in Bolga but due to the loss of my voice I have lost my job and currently I am unemployed," she told the Commission.

In another case, Madam Elizabeth Asantewa, 55, told the Commission that she lost one of her legs through a bomb blast during a march past at the Accra Sport Stadium in 1963. She said she was 15 and a member of the Young Pioneers founded by Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, then President of Ghana, adding that the blast occurred right in front of the podium where the president took the salute.

"I was admitted at the 37 Military Hospital and the then First Lady Madam Fathia Nkrumah brought me a present after which the late president visited me in the hospital and promised to build a house for me, buy me a car and take care of my medical bills," she said.

Madam Asantewa said her left leg, which was badly damaged, was amputated and she was sent to Britain for further treatment after 13 months in the 37 Military Hospital.

She said she stayed in Britain for nine months and was brought back only to know that the late president travelled to Hanoi and was overthrown.

Madam Asantewa said when the General Kutu Acheampong's government came into power she was taken back to London for treatment and assured of efforts to build the house and buy the car for her.

"It remained a promise until the Rawlings government came and took it up," she said. "I was given to one Major Smith to provide everything for me and a team was sent to my hometown to acquire the land and start the project but it has never materialised till date."

Mr. Edward Yeboah Abrokwah, an ex-Police Corporal, now a farmer and father of eight children, also told the Commission about his unlawful dismissal from the police service in 1980 without any offence. He said he had sent several petitions to subsequent government, IGPs, Ministers of the Interior, Chairmen of Police Council and Special Tribunals for redress, but all to no avail.

Mr. Abrokwah said as a result of his dismissal, two of his 10 children died out of sickness. "I plead with the Commission to ensure that I am either reinstated into the police service or I receive my pension benefit to be able to make ends meet."