JJ by passed laid down military rules - Ex-Corporal

Ex-Corporal Mike Boafo-Ntifo on Wednesday told the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) that Ex-President Jerry John Rawlings on October 21, 1982, defied laid down rules in the military.

He alleged that Ex-President Rawlings "by-passed my Platoon Commander and Commanding Officer at Hornuta Border Guard Post and personally ordered me to stand aside from a parade of Border Guards and for my room to be searched by six armed soldiers."

Ntifo said in Rawlings' capacity as the then Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, he should have known that those orders should have gone through either of the two officers present.

"Rawlings was nothing but a shame to the Ghana Armed Forces and to the entire country. He should be ashamed of himself for what he did. I am personally ashamed that this country had such a person as head of state and President," he said.

In his story to the Commission, Ntifo said after serving for four years as a Corporal in the Ghana Police Service he enrolled with the Border Guards and served for 12 years until October 21, 1982.

He said on that fateful day he was at the Hornuta Border Post in the Volta Region with his colleagues and their Platoon Commander, Lt. York Afriyie, when a large number of soldiers came to the post.

Later a helicopter carrying Ex-President Rawlings landed after flying from the Togo side of the border.

"Our Platoon Commander immediately called us to parade. When the helicopter landed, I saw that my cousin, Ex-Squadron Leader T. C. Kissiedu, was the pilot so I attempted to ask him why they had come to the Hornuta Post, but Rawlings immediately ordered me to stand aside," he said.

Ntifo said Rawlings then ordered six of the armed soldiers he came with to take him (Ntifo) to his room in the barracks and search him, but nothing illegal was found.

He said during that search, the soldiers led by one Sergeant Sonny Liston Dede, broke open two trunks and took his personal belongings as well as those of his wife.

"The items they took included 10 half-pieces of cloth, 50,000 cedis from my wife's trunk and four pieces of wax prints, one kente cloth, a set of napkins and two new bed sheets," he said. "They also destroyed my two spring mattresses."

Ntifo said he was brought out, put into a military Land Rover and sent to Gondar Barracks in Accra where he remained for three days without being told what he had done wrong. He said his boss Lt. Afriyie was also put in a Peugeot Caravan and driven away.

At the barracks he was granted audience by Lt. Colonel John P. Addah, who made him to list the items, which were taken from his room. At the time Sgt. Dede who personally took the items was nowhere to be found.

Ntifo said he was taken to the Border Guard Headquarters and kept in the guardroom till December 15, 1982 when he was released and asked to return to post without any explanation on what he had done wrong and where his items were.

"I requested to be reposted to Accra to have the opportunity to attend to my ailing mother so I was posted to the Airport to work under one Capt. C.K. Lumor."

He said on February 4, 1983 he was called by one Warrant Officer Asiedu and told that from that day, he had been sacked from the Border Guards without explanation or specific charges.

Later in the day he heard his dismissal on radio and read in the Ghanaian Times that 13 Border Guards had been sacked.

Ntifo said he contacted Sgt. Dede to return his items to him, but Dede wrote a letter to him saying he collected the items so that "in case something happened to me he would give them to my family members".

He said he met with Dede at Madina, near Accra, and he asked him to wait for some time before coming for his items.

"In the course of time there was a military installation exercise and I saw it as an opportunity for me to have my items returned to me and for me to seek redress for my unlawful detention, but a warning came to me through a friend that I should not step at the Burma Camp," he said.

Ntifo said the warning scared him, so he fled to Cote d'Ivoire where he remained and worked with USAID for 18 years till 2001 when he returned.

He said on his return he reported at the Ghana Armed Forces Legal Department. He was referred to the Records Department where he found his records indicating that he did nothing wrong and there was no just cause for his dismissal.

"I, therefore, petitioned the current President, the Minister of Defence and the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) for redress, but I did not have any response till this Commission came into being," he said.

Ntifo appealed to the Commission to see to it that he was given proper pension, saying that when he was dismissed he was given only 15,000 cedis as 50 per cent of his end of service benefit but he has not received anything since.

He said currently he runs an NGO for the aged.

The members of the Commission assured him of efforts to properly address his case.