I'll repeat what led to my detention for 8 years

A witness who said he spent eight years in prison for ferrying stranded Ghanaians by sea in 1984 when the Ghana-Togo border was closed told the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) on Thursday that he would repeat his action even if it would land him in trouble again.

Tetteh Adimeh stunned those at the hearing when he said in an answer to a question posed by Commissioner Uborr Dalafu Labal II he would do it again. Adimeh had told the NRC that he was arrested, beaten in the cells of the Bureau of the National Investigations (BNI) and spent eight years in detention for ferrying Ghanaian returnees from Nigeria in 1984 across the border.

After waiting for about a minute, he said: "I will help any Ghanaian who is genuinely in distress." Uborr Labal then remarked: "Thank you. Thank you for your answer. May God bless you."

Adimeh who hails from Ningo told the Commission that in 1984, he was fishing around Togo with a colleague called Emmanuel Narh when they decided to ferry eight men deported from Nigeria and who were apparently stranded in Togo to Ghana.

He said since the men did not have any money they decided to ferry them into Ghana free of charge. He said the journey to Ningo in the Greater Accra Region took 12 hours. Adimeh said they bought food for the returnees with their own money and handed them over to the Chief Fisherman called Agboketse, as fishermen had laid down rules that whatever they found at sea should be handed over to the Chief Fisherman.

He said after they had left the Chief Fisherman's residence, he (Agboketse) sent for the Police to interrogate them as well as the eight returnees they brought. Adimeh said the Police arrested him, his friend, the chief fisherman and the eight men because the Police claimed he should have sent the men to the Police station instead of sending them to the Chief Fisherman's house.

He said they were transferred to the BNI cells where they were beaten. Later he was sent to Ussher Fort Prisons without any charge, he said, adding, "I do not know what happened to the rest."

Adimeh said he spent two years at the Ussher Fort Prison without any trial and was transferred to the Sekondi Central Prisons where he spent six years. He said he was released in 1992 without being given any reasons. Adimeh said the imprisonment had resulted in the loss of his friends and family members because "nobody came to visit me in prison except those with whom I stayed in the same house."

He said he was married with two children at the time of his arrest and his wife, a fishmonger, could not send the children to school. Adimeh said the boat he worked with got rotten while he was in prison hence he now has no means of fishing and pleaded with the Commission to help him find work.

General Emmanuel Erskine, a member of the Commission, advised him to be careful with how he went about his activities because by helping others he may be going against the law. He said the closure of the Ghana-Togo boarder at the time was perhaps due to security reasons and by ferrying those men into Ghana Mr Adimeh might have created problems for himself.

General Erskine told him to understand that he went against the law and that might have led to his brush with the law. He advised him to forget about the pain and forge ahead.

John Kwabena Adom, a trader at Hohoe, said in July 1979, a group of about 20 soldiers from the Ho Mortar Regiment led by Lt. Ken Korah, stormed the house of his father, Opanin Daniel Kwaku Addae Adom, a prosperous businessman, at about 2200 hours and demanded to see him.

Adom said he told the soldiers that his father had been involved in an accident and was sick. He said he pleaded to stand in for his father and the soldiers arrested him and sent him to the Ho Mortar Regiment guardroom.

He said he was asked why he was brought there and he replied he did not know. "The soldiers requested me to remove my spectaacles and my shirt. Just as I was doing that they gave me two hefty slaps. I fell and they kicked me all over."

Adom said the following day they brought him out and used a sharp object to shave him. They accused him of profiteering and whipped him with an electric cable. He said after this he was brought back into the guardroom, but his wife arranged through one Lt Nyarko, the Operations Commander of the Ho Mortar Regiment, and he was released.

Adom said shortly after he was released, soldiers again led by Lt. Korah arrived in a Pick-up, forced open the father's trading store, Aquay Allah Stores, and auctioned the contents from 1700 to about 2200. They sent him back to the Ho Mortar Regiment guardroom.

Once again his wife sneaked into the barracks and arranged for his release. Adom said after his release, the soldiers returned and auctioned the remaining items in the store, took the key away and kept it till a week before the then AFRC handed over power to the Limann's Administration.

He said the family lost about 500,000 in the looting during that military attack. His father, who was then 65 years old, became disinterested in business, and died two years ago.

Mis wife, Charity Afua Konadu corroborated her husband's testimony and added that Abotare Shop owned by one Obeng, was also raided and the owner taken away. She said one Ellis, manager of a filling station, and a dispenser and laboratory technician at the Hohoe Government Hospital were also arrested on the same night as her husband. Mrs Adom said the soldiers made the two medical personnel walk on their knees from the hospital to the lorry station.

Ex-detective Inspector Nathaniel Tawiah Amedogbeh, formerly stationed at the Kaneshie Divisional Headquarters, said on 4 June 1979, he went to the Makola Number 1 Market to help his cousin, Madam Juliana Yawa Bobi, because he had heard that there was a coup and people were looting.

"I ran to the market to see if I could help my cousin retrieve some of the items. I saw soldiers standing at the market. They were many," he said. "When I reached the gate where she used to pass to the market I saw four dead bodies - three men already dead, and another young man, who was running away with three pieces of cloth, shot before my own eyes."

Amedogbeh said the soldiers asked traders who were coming out with their wares to send them into an army vehicle. He said those who were trying to run away were shot and the gate to the market was later closed.

"My cousin came later on and I asked her never to venture into the market. I asked her to go home," he said. Amedogbeh said he did not see the importance of coups and called on Ghanaians to let democracy prevail.

The Commission expressed its sympathy to Madam Yawa Bobi who, Chairman Justice Kweku Amua-Sekyi said, had become a destitute. Justice Amua-Sekyi said recommendations for Yawa Bobi would be based on her statement and Amedogbeh's evidence.