P.N.P. women's leader says she fell sick as a result of torture

Cape Coast, March 4, GNA- Madam Elizabeth Eshun, alias Ama Ayimah, a women's leader in the erstwhile People's National Party (PNP), in Abura Dunkwa alleged that she developed Blood Pressure (BP) as a result of torture by soldiers on December 31, 1981 revolution.

Madam Ayimah who made this revelation on Wednesday when nine petitioners testified before the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) sitting in Cape Coast, said five soldiers came to her provision store on that day and after looting a reasonable quantity of items sold the rest to the public at the "control price."

She said the soldiers accused her of also dealing in cloths and took her to her house and searched her room thoroughly and when they did not see anything they took away 800 cedis they found in one of her boxes. The former women's leader who claimed that the soldiers used the butt of their guns to beat her during the search, was from her house taken to the police station and detained for a day, adding that the proceeds from the sale of the provisions were also carried away by the soldiers.

She stated that she was taken to the Anomabo prison the following day where she spent three months without trial and no charge preferred against her.

Witness said she was sent to the Tesano police station in Accra and later put before a public tribunal and set free after interrogation.

Madam Ayimah indicated that she was a fat woman before the incident, adding that, she became indebted after the ordeal she went through and therefore prayed the commission to recommend a compensation for her.

Madam Margaret Aidoo, now resident at Dunkwa-on-Offin, said her father, Mr Joseph Aidoo, now deceased, owner of a store at Wassa-Manso, dealer in rice, sugar, milk and other items in 1982 broke his leg when he was informed that soldiers were coming to the store as he attempted to escape through a window inside the store.

Madam Aidoo, who pointed out that, they had closed from school on that day and she and the other children were playing in front of the store when the soldiers appeared and asked for the owner of the store. She said even though they did not lay hands on their father, they sold all the items in the store to the public and took the proceeds away, stressing that the incident spelt disaster for the family as their parents could not get money again to finance their education.

She said things became so difficult for her father that he had to leave the hospital and resort to local treatment and appealed to the NRC for some form of compensation to mitigate their sufferings.

Mr Bannerman Smith, a resident of Cape Coast, also disclosed to the NRC that he was among the entourage of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana that went to Hanoi, China when the 1966 military take-over took place.

Mr Smith, who said he was employed as a bodyguard driver in the President's Detail Department (PDD) in 1963, said they were in Peking, China when they heard of the news of the coup.

He said they spent two weeks in China before they were flown to Russia, where they spent another three weeks, and from there four of his colleagues were selected to accompany Dr Nkrumah to Conakry, Guinea. According to him, he and others left behind and later on joined the President in Guinea, where together they spent six and half years before returning to Ghana when Nkrumah died in 1972.

The former PDD staff alleged that on his return to Ghana, he realised that all his personal effects in his flagstaff house including his motorbike and a sewing machine belonging to his wife had been ransacked.

Mr Smith told the Commission that in 1985, a friend gave him a loan to buy a Benz bus to work with and through that assisted his niece to travel to Germany who in turn shipped a Peugeot 404 automatic car when she learnt he was facing problems.

Mr Smith, regretted that even though, he saw the car at the Tema port and paid some money into the famous account number 48 in respect of it, one W.O.I Nkwantabisa later told him that the car had been taken to Burma Camp.

At Burma Camp, he was asked to see one Flt. Lt. Kaki who was in charge of vehicles and he asked him to go round to look for it but all efforts to trace the car proved futile.

Later, Mr Smith, said he saw the car one day entering the state house and when he interrogated the driver he became convinced that the car was his and thereby went to see Capt. Kojo Tsikata to assist him get back his car, but he was told by one Mr Sarfo, the secretary that he had travelled.

He said since then he had not been able to get his car, and therefore pleaded with the commission to assist him get some compensation in respect of all his lost items. Other petitioners who testified at the Commission were, Mr James Bosu Quarshie, Mr Danjima Modi, and Madam Juliana Asher.