Retired Warrant Officer Class one (WO1) Yaw Nkwantabisa, Tuesday apologized to Samuel Agyemang for burning his 15-seater Toyota mini-bus with registration number AN 4885 KN at Koforidua 20 years ago.
Sixty-year-old Nkwantabisa, now unemployed, appeared before the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) in an obviously, remorseful mood wearing bathroom sandals (charley wote), and admitted having burnt Agyemang's vehicle.
In what has been described as yet another positive landmark in the work of the NRC, Nkwantabisa said: "I regretted my action the moment I fired the second bullet which ignited the car and I am deeply sorry for the pain I caused Agyemang."
He walked up to Agyemang and his brother, Dickson Jeremiah Acheampong, who had earlier given his account of the incident to the Commission, and apologized to them and shook hands with them, with General Erskine and the Most Rev. Father Palmer-Buckle joining him.
Prior to Nkwantabisa's admission and subsequent apology, Acheampong had told the Commission that sometime in 1982 when the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) took power from President Hilla Limann's government, orders were given for borders to be closed and for all vehicles with foreign registration numbers to be impounded.
He said at the time his brother, Sam Agyemang had returned from Nigeria with the bus, which he gave to one Frank Sarpong to operate on commercial basis. "My brother decided to return to Nigeria because of the political situation in Ghana so Sarpong, the driver was asked to drive him to the Aflao border and return with the bus to Kumasi, where we lived."
Acheampong said after five days when the vehicle had not returned as arranged, he checked on the driver at Koforidua only to be told that it had been impounded at the Koforidua Military Base because it had a foreign number.
Apparently an order had come from the Chairman's (Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings) Office that all vehicles with foreign numbers should be impounded. "I went to the Military Base to find out why the vehicle was impounded and when it would be released. To my shock, I found several other such vehicles packed in the yard but only my brother's had been burnt near a mango tree.
"I was told that Nkwantabisa had asked to use the car for an errand in town, but after moving it from the lot, asked two soldiers to fire at it for no apparent reason till it got burnt," he said.
Acheampong said he reported the incident to his brother, one Sergeant Osei-Tutu at the Kumasi Barracks, who promised to see to it that the money was refunded to him, but that promise never materialized.
In his statement to the Commission Nkwantabisa, a Catholic, said he was not at the barracks when the vehicles were impounded, but on his return he overhead Sarpong hurling very provocative insults at all uniformed soldiers.
"Then I heard a gun cocked, which attracted my attention so I decided to take action to avert any possible bloodshed because Sarpong's insults were so provocative that he could have been shot dead," he said.
Nkwantabisa said he collected a gun from one soldier and asked one Lance Corporal Ampofo to move Sarpong's car away from the others. He said he shot twice himself at the petrol tank with the intention of crippling it as a punishment for Sarpong's insults.
"When I fired the first bullet burst the petrol tank but I fired a second one which was a tracer bullet," he said. "I did not know that the gun carried a tracer bullet. I wouldn't have shot it if I knew and I am really sorry for that."
Asked whether he apologized at the time to Sarpong for burning his vehicle unintentionally, Nkwantabisa said he did not. In response to another question, Nkwantabisa said he did not know what kind of arms soldiers carried around at the time, adding that soldiers at the time did not account for the use of weapons, except when they used them in the range during practice.
He said it was not normal at the time to be shooting at one's discretion, but in his case he wanted to prevent a possible bloodshed, which was very imminent, given the kind of insults Sarpong threw at the soldiers.
"I took into consideration an earlier incident which occurred at the time in which a soldier under my command in a marijuana busting operation fired and killed three persons without my orders so I decided to prevent a similar situation.
"Given the chance again, I would never do that," he said. "I would want to advise that soldiers should be kept from such internal situations for the police to handle them."
In the second case heard by the Commission, 63-year-old Madam Cecilia Aku Hoffman, a trader, dressed in white told the Commission that between 1979 and 1983 various military activities led to her unlawful imprisonment for two weeks and the seizure of her goods worth several millions of cedis.
She said on 18 August 1979 there was an announcement that the Makola Number One Market, where she traded, was being razed to the ground so all traders should stay away from that market.
Madam Hoffman said she went to the scene and joined a large group of traders whose goods were being packed into about six parked vehicles by soldiers, whiles other soldiers carried out the demolition.
She said in 1980-81 when President Hilla Limann's administration took over, she and other traders returned to the market and mounted tables to sell but soldiers came back and burnt their tables.
"I then decided to keep my goods, which comprised flour, rice, sugar and oil in three store houses in my house at Atukpai in Accra and brought them to town in bits to sell," she said.
She said one Saturday morning in 1983 military men came to her house held everybody in the house captive and asked of her. When she came out of her room she was led to her storerooms and a vehicle was brought from the Chorkor lorry station to pack all her goods away for allegedly hoarding those goods.
"They packed at least 20 bags of flour, 25 boxes of cube sugar, 25 boxes of oil and several bags of rice to the Accra City Council (ACC) "I left the house to see where they took my goods and on my return I was told that the military had given a warning that I should come and see them if I did not want trouble."
Madam Hoffman said she went and was accused of hoarding goods. She was arraigned before the ACC tribunal and charged with the offence and sentenced to two weeks imprisonment at the James Fort Prison. "Later I was accused of insulting Ft-Lt J. J. Rawlings and so the soldiers requested that I be sentenced to five years imprisonment but that was not done," she said.
"After the two weeks detention I returned without a penny and I have been poor since. I now sell iced water." Justice E. K. Amua-Sekyi, Chairman of the NRC assured the victims that the Commission has taken note of the issues and would make the appropriate recommendations for redress.
