It is looking increasingly likely that members of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), having gone through some form of counseling will have to undergo more hours of counseling.
This is against the background that credible information available to The ‘Daily Dispatch’ indicates that within the next few weeks, some of the information to be made available to the NRC will be in the form of videotaping of the killing in cold blood of some military personnel at the Air Force Station in Accra. Even though they were badly injured, they were shot, amidst screams. This was captured on video and had occasionally been watched in the late 1980’s and 1990’s at the Castle, the seat of government. Those killed in this manner included Cpl. Halidu Gyiwah and Sgt Mohammed Malik. The existence of this video was confirmed in interviews ‘The Daily Dispatch’ has been having with some former members of the security outfits of ex-President Jerry Rawlings.
These interviews, made within the last few weeks, threw up one shocking detail that copies of the film have been made. These interviews also confirm certain paragraphs in a book written by a former PNDC Secretary of State, Mr Zaya Yeebo. The 314-page book is titled GHANA: THE STRUGGLE FOR POPULAR POWER – Rawlings Saviour or Demagogue.’ Part of page 254 states “one example was the execution of Sgt. Mohammed Malik and Corporal Halidu Gyiwah. A senior official of the BNI was in tears as he described the deaths of these soldiers to a colleague who was then in the cells at the BNI headquarters.
After Rawlings had personally interrogated and tortured them at the Air Force Station, the shackles on their legs removed and they were told to walk away. As they toddled along, they were shot from behind. During both the torture and execution, (name withheld for now), a Lebanese friend of Rawlings was recording every detail on his video for Rawlings. The last paragraph on page 255 states, “a Ghanaian journalist narrated how he was invited to Rawlings’ office in December 1987 to watch a video film showing the execution of some of his best known opponents. “It was chilling. We saw Corporal Halidu Gyiwah, Malik and others gunned down like beasts. Some of them screamed when bullets tore through their bodies.
I felt sick. I just couldn’t look but I could also not get up and go. I feared what the reaction of the Head of State might be if I just walked away. There were about ten of us with him and some of his bodyguards and surprisingly, he appeared to be in one of his best moods. Rawlings used such videos to intimidate young soldiers likely to rebel against him. It was his way of saying ‘if you dare rebel against me, you will go the same way.”
Corporals Gyiwah, Adabuga and Sgts Mattew Awaar and Malik among those who took active part in the success of the 31st December 1981 coup of the then Flt-Lt. Jerry Rawlings.
It is looking increasingly likely that members of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), having gone through some form of counseling will have to undergo more hours of counseling.
This is against the background that credible information available to The ‘Daily Dispatch’ indicates that within the next few weeks, some of the information to be made available to the NRC will be in the form of videotaping of the killing in cold blood of some military personnel at the Air Force Station in Accra. Even though they were badly injured, they were shot, amidst screams. This was captured on video and had occasionally been watched in the late 1980’s and 1990’s at the Castle, the seat of government. Those killed in this manner included Cpl. Halidu Gyiwah and Sgt Mohammed Malik. The existence of this video was confirmed in interviews ‘The Daily Dispatch’ has been having with some former members of the security outfits of ex-President Jerry Rawlings.
These interviews, made within the last few weeks, threw up one shocking detail that copies of the film have been made. These interviews also confirm certain paragraphs in a book written by a former PNDC Secretary of State, Mr Zaya Yeebo. The 314-page book is titled GHANA: THE STRUGGLE FOR POPULAR POWER – Rawlings Saviour or Demagogue.’ Part of page 254 states “one example was the execution of Sgt. Mohammed Malik and Corporal Halidu Gyiwah. A senior official of the BNI was in tears as he described the deaths of these soldiers to a colleague who was then in the cells at the BNI headquarters.
After Rawlings had personally interrogated and tortured them at the Air Force Station, the shackles on their legs removed and they were told to walk away. As they toddled along, they were shot from behind. During both the torture and execution, (name withheld for now), a Lebanese friend of Rawlings was recording every detail on his video for Rawlings. The last paragraph on page 255 states, “a Ghanaian journalist narrated how he was invited to Rawlings’ office in December 1987 to watch a video film showing the execution of some of his best known opponents. “It was chilling. We saw Corporal Halidu Gyiwah, Malik and others gunned down like beasts. Some of them screamed when bullets tore through their bodies.
I felt sick. I just couldn’t look but I could also not get up and go. I feared what the reaction of the Head of State might be if I just walked away. There were about ten of us with him and some of his bodyguards and surprisingly, he appeared to be in one of his best moods. Rawlings used such videos to intimidate young soldiers likely to rebel against him. It was his way of saying ‘if you dare rebel against me, you will go the same way.”
Corporals Gyiwah, Adabuga and Sgts Mattew Awaar and Malik among those who took active part in the success of the 31st December 1981 coup of the then Flt-Lt. Jerry Rawlings.
