My brother became mad after torture by soldiers

A witness on Thursday told the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) in Kumasi that her younger brother became mad after severe torture by a group of soldiers in 1982.

Madam Akosua Adabi said the soldiers used hammer to hit Kwaku Nantwi several times on the head at a military barrier mounted at Mangoase on the Accra-Aflao road.

She said days after the torture, Nantwi started behaving abnormally and medical tests at a hospital at Pankrono in Kumasi showed blood clot in the brain.

Witness said her brother then aged about 22, who was engaged in leather bag making, was on board a bus from Accra to Aflao when soldiers stopped the bus at the Mangoase barrier.

Of all the passengers on board the bus, only Nantwi was asked to come down by the soldiers.

Madam Adabi said during a search in his travelling bag, the soldiers saw a Bible and a hammer and remarked: "Kalabule Pastor".

She said the soldiers then swarmed all over him, slapping, punching and kicking him. They also used the hammer to hit his head.

Witness said a good Samaritan later brought Nantwi back to Kumasi in a bad physical condition.

She said she spent all her fortune and sold her properties to get medical treatment for the brother but without success.

Amidst intermittent sobbing, she told the commission that his brother passed away four years after the incident.

Madam Yaa Adomah, a trader, narrated how her goods were seized at the Kintampo market and publicly flogged by soldiers after the 1981 coup d'tat.

She said they removed her 'Kaba Short', laid her on a table and used the hook of the belt to lash her on the back as blood oozed.

"For five months, I could not sleep on my back", she said and showed to the Commissioners scars left on her back as result of the lashing.

Madam Adomah said the seizure of her goods and the flogging had made her become hypertensive, adding, "the sight of soldiers and policemen scares me".

She told the Commission that as some of the goods she was trading in, including textiles, materials for school uniform and calico were bought on credit, she sold off her properties to pay her creditors.

She therefore, appealed to the NRC to help her get on with her life. Mr. Stephen Agyeman-Berko, former Texaco Filling Station Manager at James Town, Accra, said his business and marriage collapsed as a result of the "Rawlings coup".

He said just after the June 4, 1979 Uprising, soldiers invaded his filling station with a number of military trucks and unregistered private cars and ordered him to fuel them.

He said he was so frightened on seeing the soldiers that he immediately switched on the operating machine and started filling the tanks of the vehicles.

Mr Agyeman-Berko said he lost a total of "350 gallons of super and 150 gallons of regular" as the soldiers did not make any payment.

"Just after this batch of soldiers had hit the road, another batch came and ordered that we fuel their trucks".

He said at that point he explained to them that the tank was empty but they would not take that and insisted that, "I should find every means to get fuel for their vehicles".

Witness said the soldiers asked him to open the tank, which he did and they asked that they should be taken to see the manager.

At that time he was only about 22 years and when he told them he was the manager, one of them queried "how can a tiny thing like you own a filling station".

He said he was then given a hefty slap by a woman soldier who was with the group and when he turned to ask why he was slapped, the others joined and subjected him to severe beatings.

Witness said he later reported to the management of Texaco and continued with the business until 1982.

He said he had attended a funeral at his hometown, Ejisu, when he heard an announcement on the withdrawal of the 50 cedis notes from circulation.

"The announcement however, said filling stations, drug stores and other institutions were to accept those notes and in my absence the attendants had accepted large volumes of the notes".

He said it totalled 120,000 cedis and he later paid the money at the Barclays Bank and took a pay slip to collect his fuel consignment as was the practice at Texaco.

Mr Agyeman-Berko said it was there that he was told by the oil company that the government had directed that the money should be used to buy bonds.

"I therefore lost my business capital and ended up driving trotro and taxis in Accra.

At the time I deposited the money kerosene sold at one cedi a gallon and when the bonds were redeemed, it sold at six cedis.

He said his wife, who was a former Greater Accra Region Beauty Queen, deserted him and he could not even look after the child he had with her.

Opanin Kofi Jantuah, a Youth Organiser of the defunct National Liberation Movement (NLM), also appeared before the Commission to tell his harrowing experience at the Ussher Fort Prison where he was in detention from 1961-1966.

He said he was shaven with broken bottle, fed on gari mixed with sand and that for three months he was kept in a cell where powerful bulbs had been fixed.

Opanin Jantuah mentioned the late Dr. J.B. Danquah, Joe Appiah, Victor Owusu and Baffour Osei Akoto among some political prisoners he met in detention.

He said a Syrian he was working with and who was taking care of his wife and mother, was deported by the Nkrumah government.

Witness advised the country's youth to always stand by the truth, saying, "the truth will always be victorious".

General Emmanuel Erskine (rtd), one of the Commissioners, said Ghanaians have to learn as a people to be tolerant of the political views and beliefs of others.

He said it was disgraceful that such callous and inhuman acts were going on even in the 1960's

Madam Ama Asantewaah, a Kumasi trader, recounted to the Commission how goods supplied to her by the CFAO were illegally seized in 1984.

She said she was also put before a public tribunal and said she was unjustly sentenced to one month imprisonment and a fine of 30,000 cedis which she paid.

The NRC ends its public hearing in Kumasi on Friday.