Mice Bit My Penis As I Was Tortured - Witness

Alhassan Abubakar, unemployed has alleged that in 1985, military men blindfolded, handcuffed and stripped him naked and made six to mice bite his manhood. He said on June 16, 1985, he was on his normal business as a small-scale importer of motorbikes from Nigeria to Ghana, when he was picked up by military men at the Aflao border on allegation of being part of a plot in Kumasi in February 1985 to assassinate Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings, then Chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).

Mr Abubakar said he was taken to Lieutenant General Arnold Quainoo, a member of the PNDC, and after the General and one Kwamena had interrogated him, he ordered that he should be taken to the cells of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI).

"I was kept in the BNI cells for two weeks without being told anything until one Major Lumor led several soldiers to the cells. They picked me up, blindfolded and handcuffed me and took me to a place I do not know till date," he said.

Abubakar said he was stripped completely naked, put in a big water reservoir and several buckets of cold water stinking with fish poured on him. He said the soldiers told him that he was going to be "cooked" with cold water until he told the truth. He said he heard them say "release them, release them" after which about six mice were released on him in the stinking water.

''The mice targeted my manhood and bit it as much as they could until I managed to kill five of them. "When the soldiers saw the dead mice they threatened to release more mice on me and cook me with hot water but they did not." He said he was taken to the BNI Headquarters and later to the Legon Police Station on the orders of Mr Peter Nanfuri for three days, before he was finally sent to the BNI annex and kept there till September 6, 1985.

At the BNI cells he met the late Mr Tommy Thompson, Proprietor of the Free Press, one Corporal Adjei and one Major Sule. Abubakar said on September 6, 1985 his name was among a long list of detainees to be released from the BNI. However, instead of being released, they were taken to various prisons. He ended up at Usher Fort Prisons, where he stayed for over seven years. "In my seventh year at Usher Fort, I developed stomach ulcer so I was sent to Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital for a surgical operation.

"At Korle-Bu, I was handcuffed to my bed and that was where I eased myself, bathed, ate and did everything with prisons staff on guard." He said the nurses complained that the stench of his toilet at the bedside disturbed other patients but prison officers did not budge. He said one Rose Kokoroko, a nursing sister at Korle-Bu, could testify to his story.

Abubakar said while at the hospital, a sympathizer smuggled an object with a sharp edge to him and he used it to cut the handcuff. He then escaped through the window at his bedside.

He said he drew a diagram directing the Prisons staff to Lome, Togo, but rather went into exile in Cote d'Ivoire and remained there till 1997 when through the help of Mr Haruna Atta, then Editor of the Statesman, he returned home.

"On my return, Mr. Atta arranged separate meetings between Commander Asaase Gyimah and I at the Castle and with Mr Peter Nanfuri at the BNI Head Office and they both apologised for the past and promised to assist me in any way possible.

He said he petitioned Ex-President Jerry John Rawlings through Mr Nanfuri and the matter was referred to Mr Kofi Totobi Quakyi, then Head of Security, but nothing was done about it until the Rawlings administration lost power.

Abubakar said he was grateful to God he did not lose his manhood after the mice bit him. He was detained at age 24 when he had only one child, but now he has three children and expecting a fourth one. "When I was in prison, President Charles Taylor of Liberia was then my prison mate and I had developed so much spiritual maturity that I became his counsellor at the time," he said.

Two members of the Commission, Bishop Palmer Buckle and Maulvi Wahab Adam took Abubakar to a private room in the Old Parliament House and closely observed the damage done to his manhood by the mice.