Frempong Numo, Assistant Accountant of the Ghana News Agency (GNA), on Wednesday appealed to the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) to investigate and ascertain the reasons why soldiers arrested, shot and killed his junior brother, Joseph Ocansey Numo, on 6 March 1989.
He also prayed the commission to locate where his brother was buried to enable the family to give him a befitting burial and perform the necessary funeral rites.
Frempong Numo who was giving evidence at the NRC said Ocansey Numo was shot at the residence of Oti Prempeh, former Auditor-General, where he had gone to seek refuge after escaping from the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) where the soldiers were torturing him.
He said the late Enoch Kom, the lawyer handling the case, advised the family to accept one million cedis compensation ordered by Dr Obed Asamoah, then Minister of Justice and Attorney General, to be paid to the three children of deceased in 1995.
Frempong Numo said Mr Kom indicated government's acceptance of responsibility for the murder of Ocansey Numo based upon letters of administration granted to him. He said though letters from the Attorney General's Department to the family tried to explain the murder of his brother, they were conflicting because one claimed he was insane whilst another claimed he was mistakenly shot.
Narrating how his brother was murdered, Frempong Numo said at about 14.30 hours on 6 March 1989, he was resting at home when two men who claimed they were personnel of the BNI, asked him about the apartment of Ocansey Numo, who, they said, had been arrested and sent to the Police Headquarters.
He said his late brother who returned from Italy on 24 February had then gone out with two family members to watch the 32nd Independence Anniversary parade. Frempong Numo said when the men were shown his late brother's apartment they searched through his suitcases and left, after reading documents and some letters they found in the bags.
He said together with his senior brother, he went to the Police Headquarters to look for their brother but the Police said they knew nothing about that arrest and that their brother had not been brought there.
Frempong Numo said they followed up to the Cantonment Police Station where somebody informed them that their brother had been shot and he had been taken to the Police Hospital. He said the person told him that his brother died shortly upon arrival at the Police Hospital and that the body had been deposited at the Korle-bu Teaching Hospital mortuary.
"On Thursday, 16 March 1989, when we were not getting any information after several calls at the BNI, we went to the mortuary to inspect the body of our brother, Joseph Ocansey Numo, to make sure that the body had been preserved for subsequent burial, as Annor Kumi of the BNI had assured us."
Frempong Numo said to their surprise, they could not trace the body of their brother. Following enquiries, they were informed that a team of policemen under the command of Chief Superintendent C.K. Agbeli of the Ministries Police Station had come to collect the body.
He said on 17 March the family was informed by Abankwa of the BNI that government had ordered the burial of his brother and that the order had been carried out. Members of the Commission expressed their condolences to Frempong Numo and assured him that they would investigate the case and get back to the family. Hearing for this case continues.
