I was nearly lynched - Ex-soldier

A former military officer, Peter Kwabena Ntiedu, has revealed that he was nearly killed by a mob at Sefwi Wiawso in the Western Region in 2010.

According to him, during his time in the town, he decided to board a taxi to meet a friend while off duty.

However, the taxi driver quickly made a call to some persons within the community that he had seen a heavily built man he believed was an armed robber and asked them to rush down and lynch him.

Within minutes, he said, several people wielding offensive weapons were moving towards him.

He added that some even poured petrol on him in order to set him alight, however, he drew upon his skills from military training to outsmart the mob and escaped danger.

Speaking in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom on Accra100.5FM on Thursday, 1 June in connection with the murder of Captain Maxwell Mahama on Monday, May 29 by irate youth of Denkyira Obuasi in the Central Region on suspicion that he was an armed robber, Mr Ntiedu said: “I was sent to a village in Sefwi Wiawso on national assignment. At a point I decided to board a taxi to a location to meet a friend.

“I was not on duty that particular day and so I wasn’t in uniform but I had my ID card on me. I didn’t know what the driver saw on me but he quickly called his people that he had seen an armed robber and so they should come and lynch me.

“Within few minutes several people including men and women wielding sticks, cutlasses, stones and other weapons came to the area and attempted to lynch me but I managed to calm a few of the people who initially rushed on me and showed them my ID card that I was a soldier.

“I thought at that point the only thing that could save me was my ID card and so I brought it out to show to them but that even angered them because they were convinced that I was lying and that I was indeed an armed robber, so they quickly poured petrol on me to burn me.

“But it was only God that saved me. I was able to use the skills I had acquired to outsmart the crowd and run away.”