Ben Ephson, Pollster
The Managing Editor of the Daily Dispatch newspaper, Mr Ben Ephson, has recounted a harrowing forced human flesh-eating incident which allegedly occurred under the erstwhile PNDC regime of Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings.
Speaking on Straight Talk on Class91.3FM to Felicity Nelson about his work as a journalist, the pollster, who said he covered all the trials of failed coup plotters in the past except one in-camera hearing, said the trial of Mr Kyeremeh Gyan and Mawuli Goka had a toll on him because it involved the forced eating of human flesh.
The veteran journalist recalled: “One of the darkest spots in my career so far was when I was working for West Africa magazine. I covered almost all the coup attempt trials. The only one I didn’t cover was the one involving Major Twumasi, which was held in-camera. There was this coup plot involving Kyeremeh Gyan – that is the younger brother of Boakye Gyan – and involves Mawuli Goka.
“Mawuli Goka was my senior at Accra Academy and during the break time for the public tribunal sittings, relatives and friends could chat. Now, there was one of the accused persons ‘[who was] always in a cloth, so, during the break, Mawuli said: ‘Ben, we’ve been tortured.’
“So, I asked permission from the prison wardens and they took me to the bathroom. Kyeremeh Gyan removed his shirt to show how his back was cut and given to Mawuli Goka to chew. The one who was always in cloth was a twin and he removed the cloth to show that his male organ had been put in fire and there was always puss coming out; that’s why he was in cloth, and Mawuli told me that: ‘Ben, if you write this, you’ll be in trouble’. That was 1986. And I told Mawuli that as of the time I was speaking, I was already in trouble”.
Mr Rawlings was head of state under the PNDC from 1981 until he embraced multiparty democracy in 1992. He won the first democratic elections of the Fourth Republic on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
