Don't think of vengeance - NRC

The National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) on Tuesday registered its gratefulness to a witness who indicated that he had dropped his intention to let his children join the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) to avenge the brutalities he suffered from the hands of the Military after the 31 December 1981 revolution.

"The good people of this land join me to say thank you for your decision", Uborr Dalafu Labal II, a member of the Commission told Enock Anim Mpare, the witness. Commissioner Dalafu added that it was necessary to remove any bitterness, hatred and anger that he might have against the Military, for it would only perpetuate the cycle of disunity and plunge the country into chaos.

Mpare had earlier told the Commission that he had developed a strong aversion to soldiers, and any sight of them put him off, and he has vowed that his children would join the military to retaliate his painful losses, including the loss of his vehicle, transport business, loss of his two children and put in extreme poverty.

Just after he got into the witness seat, Mpare broke into tears. Some of the people in the public gallery began murmuring "sei sei yi ara?" meaning "just now?" Mpare said after resigning from the then Cocoa Marketing Board (CMB), he got into a business of buying from Ghana and selling in Nigeria.

It was then that he struck an acquaintance with one Moses Olatoji, a Nigerian who assisted him to buy a Toyota bus which he registered with a foreign number and used it to run transport from Ghana to Nigeria.

Mpare said one day after the 31 December 1981 revolution, after returning from a trip to Nigeria, he was driving the wife to the market, when a group of five soldiers stopped the bus as he was about to enter the Central Market at Koforidua.

Mpare said the soldiers asked him where he was going and after replying, they remarked that while they were struggling he rather was driving to the market. He said the soldiers told him that one Nkwantabisa had ordered them to bring the vehicle, and added that the soldiers did not agree to sit in the bus for him to send them to the one requesting for the bus.

He said he refused to give them the vehicle and this resulted in a scuffle, during which one soldier gave him a slap. "The soldiers got down and beat me to the extent that I felt very weak. My wife shouted for help, but no one came to help for fear of Nkwatabisa. All that I found was that I was later in hospital. I lost my teeth."

Mpare said he was detained for a day in the hospital and after he was discharged, he went to Nkwantabisa's office to ask him of his vehicle, but he (Nkawantabisa) ordered him out of his office.

After fruitless efforts to get his bus back, Mpare said he gave up. He said life became very difficult for him. He and the wife occasionally sold clothes to make ends meet, and later left for Nigeria with their three children but unfortunately, just after three months, two of their children contracted some disease and died one after the other.

They sold their personal belongings and finally returned to Ghana. Mpare said during a visit to the St. Joseph Hospital, he learnt from Dr Nartey of the Hospital that the beating had affected the main 'vein and had consequently poisoned his blood'.

He has also developed a lump in his neck, and visited the Swan Clinic where he was referred to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, which recommended surgery of his neck. Mpare said he had avoided the surgery because a lady doctor told her it would be fatal.

He pleaded with the Commission to consider his plight and give him appropriate reparation. Mpare said he did not petition any organisation because he thought the then military government of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) would not help him.

When Commissioner Labal reminded Mpare that Ghana entered constitutional rule in 1993, and that he could have petitioned the government, Mpare remarked that the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the constitutional government that came into power after in 1993 was an offshoot of the PNDC he, therefore, did not expect that that government would consider the seizure of his bus.