Dying Veterans To Be Ejected And Abandoned

By Raymond Archer-GIJ Intern

Accra - Sixty impoverished veterans of the First and Second World Wars living at the Veterans Village, opposite the Licensing Office in Accra, are to be ejected to pave way for the development of the area into residential complexes, CHRONICLE can reveal.

The veterans, aged between 98 and 108, some of whom are amputees and blind, eke out a miserable existence in cubicles. Some sleep on the bare floor, according to our investigations.

The ejection order was communicated to the veterans at a closed-door meeting held at the Village in the early afternoon of last Sunday by the VAG officials.

According to the veterans, they were told that the land had been sold to "some bigmen" to build houses. Reached for his comment, Lt. Col. Nibo, of the Armed Forces Public Relations Directorate, said that the VAG headquarters were the appropriate body to answer our questions. This was after Col. Ameteme of the VAG had directed us to the Ministry of Defence. Earlier, he had refused to comment on the issue.

"How did you hear this? If you don t know and you publish anything, you will see. Wait till an action is taken on this matter before you publish, "he warned."

The Secretary of VAG, Mr. Erasmus Glover, was also mute when he was approached at his office for comment. "If veterans are to be ejected from the village, what has that got to do with the Chronicle?" He angrily asked. At the Land Commission Secretariat, the Registrar at the records department, Mr. Odo, told the Chronicle that the lease agreement between the government and VAG had not expired.

Pressed for his comments on whether the area had been earmarked for any public or private development, he replied, "I am not too sure."

The ejection notice was received with shock by the veterans some of whose relatives have abandoned them. According to the veterans, their relatives have forgotten about them and that they do not even know whether they are alive or dead since they have been in the village since 1947.

Among some of the people who are accommodated at the village are people who have had very serious accidents and become disabled but have nobody to take care of them.

Among some of the veterans at the village are Ex-Corporal Salifu Mossi of Army, Number GC 39308, Corporal Ayembire Frafra, GC 40293, Corporal S.K. Agbogli, GC 59586, John Robert Arku, GC 66032, Sgt. Duga, GC 71826, Corporal Lawson Augustine, GC 620069, Abdulai Kanjarga GC 31813 and Ex-Private Kofi Tawia GC 65913. In all about 60 veterans live at the village in Accra.

The veterans told Chronicle that money accruing from the VAG lottery, which was established in their aid, has been misused and that a case of misappropriation of VAG money had been filed at an Accra court about two years ago and that the case is still pending.

An ex-private, Kofi Tawia, said that he demonstrated on July 19, 1991 against the British Government for failing to pay them their entitlement. According to him the British Government responded by sending Colonel Sam Pope to tell them that all their entitlements had been paid to the Ghana Government since 1957.

Some of the veterans said that their colleagues had died from very minor illnesses because even though they have a VAG clinic at the village, one can hardly get drugs at the clinic as the staffs prescribe medicines which are very expensive and unaffordable.

According to the veterans, when Kwame Nkrumah was in power he promised to give them "war allowance" but after his overthrow they have been totally neglected and now rejected.

An ex-corporal, Ayambre Frafra, 98, said he is being taken care of by a British, otherwise, "me, like I die long". He said that the British, one Mr. Gee, walked to him at the village and told him he saw his picture and name at the Queens Garden and decided to find him once he was in Ghana.

Frafra was of the view that the government should also care about them, like the whites care about them. He said, "I dey expect say government go give us better place to stay, now dey wan sack us for here, me lak dis where I go go eeh?".

He appealed to the government to give them about four more years to stay at the Veteran Village since by that time most of them might have died.

"After all, me how long me I go live for this world. Four yars tam, most of us die." Comparing their situation to that of their colleagues in the neighbouring countries, one veteran said,

"Ghana people no try for us. If you go to Nigeria, Togo or Mali, dem dey live fine, we vote for Rawlings as president, now ibi so igo do us, na God dey".