Accra, Feb. 4, GNA - Mr. Benjamin Kwadwo Agyare, former Deputy Controller of the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), Tuesday alleged that his 10 days unlawful detention in 1988 had rendered him a sickler.
"As I speak now the perpetrators of my ordeal are going about their duties freely and in good health but I have been diagnosed with Bronchial Asthma and other incurable diseases for which I am receiving medical care," he said.
Mr. Agyare, said on Monday, September 3, 1988 he was acting as the Controller of Customs and Excise in the absence of his boss Alhaji Dawuda Otoo when he was arrested for no apparent reason by three policemen who sent him to the Police Headquarters on the orders of Mr. Kofi Gyin, then Commissioner of Police.
He said he was subsequently detained for 10 days with about 20 other people in one of the extremely small and hot cells of the Usher Fort Police Station in Accra.
"I went into detention looking and feeling healthy, but whilst there I started sneezing profusely due to the heat and my inability to sleep for want of sleeping space," he said. "On my release on! September 13, 1988, my doctor, Dr. Arkaah diagnosed me with Br onchial Asthma and recommended treatment abroad."
He said he was therefore, sent to the United States of America where he received treatment for the same disease for two years, adding that in the process he was diagnosed with other incurable diseases.
Mr. Agyare said he later got to know from a press conference held by Mr. Gyin, a day after my release that I had allegedly sent CEPS officials to the Aflao border to cause confusion.
He explained that before his boss, Alhaji Otoo left for Saudi Arabia, he recommended to the Director of Civil Service to expand the services of CEPS and the Director subsequently recommended that the workforce of the CEPS should be distributed according the workload at the various stations.
"The postings affected Mr. S. T. Malm, Principal Officer at the Aflao Border, who was asked to move to the Takoradi Harbour as Deputy Controller to replace the then deputy controller at the port who was going on voluntary retirement due to ill health," he said.
Mr. Agyare said Mr Malm did not take the transfer kindly so he reported the issue to his former classmate, Mr. Gyin and all the blame was shifted on him (Agyare) since at the time he was the acting Controller of Customs and Excise.
He said based on the wrong impression that he (Agyare) was out to frustrate Malm, Mr. Gyin then unilaterally decided in his capacity as one of the Secretaries of state to detain him until the Workers Defence Committee (WDC) of CEPS agitated for his release before he was released.
"On my release I was taken to the National Investigation Council (NIC), where the officer in charg! e said he had no document, nor evidence concerning why I was br ought there and granted me bail in the sum of 3,000,000 cedis," he said.
He said when he was released he was prevented from working again so he retired and collected his benefits but was denied his two years increment, adding that he also demanded that the state pay for his medical bills home and abroad.
Members of the Commission asked him to forgive his persecutors and encourage his children to also do the same.
In another development, Mr. Daniel Claver Kwame Poku, a former building contractor said he was also unlawfully detained for nine months and two weeks on the orders of one Superintendent Opata of the Ghana Police Service on allegations of being a threat to the PNDC in 1983.
He told the NRC that his BMW car with registration number AZ 4155 was seized from him by one Major Smith, wrecked and given back to him only after he had paid about 4,000 cedis as levy on the vehicle.
Mr. Poku said on his return from detention from the Anomabo prisons cells, together with Mr. Kwame Pianim and two others, he went to his construction site at Ho and discovered that his building equipment had been stolen.
He said he sold the remaining equipment to make ends meet, adding that attempts to get other contracts from the State Housing Corporation proved futile as he was tagged an ex-convict.
"A five bed room house I built on my lawyer friend's plot of land at Ho has also been taken from me by his family after his death," he said. "I was only able to manage by God's grace to educate my children and I pray the Commission to do what ever it can to ease my suffering."
