Accra, Sept. 3, GNA - A witness on Wednesday told the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) that his brother Adam Rockson took to drinking after his six-year-old daughter was killed by a stray bullet and a bus and truck he bought from Germany was auctioned.
Mr Abaka Rockson said as if that was not enough, Adam divorced his wife in 1985 after a misunderstanding between them that led to his calling his wife a "bad luck woman".
The witness pleaded with the Commission to invite his brother and counsel him to help him stop the drinking.
Mr Rockson said his brother, who was then working in Germany, brought his children Alberta and her brother Isaac to him in Ghana to have their formal education.
He said barely a month after the children had arrived and their mother, Awuaa, had left for Germany, the December 31, 1981 coup happened.
Mr Rockson said he was staying at Bubuashie with the children whom his sister-in-law, whose name he said he had forgotten, helped to take care of.
He said one morning whilst his sister-in-law was bathing the children they heard some soldiers shooting at Cable and Wireless near their residence.
A short while later, Alberta who was standing by her brother, fell down and blood started oozing from her head. The witness said they quickly rushed Alberta to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital but unfortunately she died before they arrived at the hospital.
He said the autopsy showed a bullet was lodged in her head. They reported the matter to the Darkuman Police after which the body was handed over to the family for burial.
Mr Rockson said three days later her mother returned to Ghana. She took the police report from the Darkuman Police Station, took the photograph of Alberta's grave at Mile 11 and left for Germany after a week with Isaac.
He said in 1985, his brother Adam decided to visit Ghana and shipped a truck and a bus.
"Upon his arrival he cleared the truck from the harbour only to be arrested by one Flt. Lt. Tackie on the basis that the agent did not pay the required duty."
The witness said his brother abandoned the vehicles and went back to Germany.
His wife came down to follow up but Flt. Lt. Tackie auctioned the vehicles in the presence of the woman.
He said his brother accused his wife of being a "bad luck woman" because when he sent her to Ghana, his child died and the vehicles he brought were also seized and auctioned. This led to a divorce. The witness said when his brother returned after a long stay he took to drinking, adding, "our mother also died later as a result of Adam's predicament".
Mr Rockson said his brother's wife took custody of Isaac and their last child and she is now married living in Germany with her new husband and the children.
Witness: I was arrested in Ghana Airways plane
Accra, Sept. 3, GNA - Mr Samuel Ohemeng Danso is an ex-soldier. He enlisted into the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) in 1964, worked in the Military Intelligence Unit and rose to the rank of Sergeant. Mr Danso's career, however, came to an abrupt end when he was arrested at gunpoint in a Ghana Airways plane he was detailed to protect against hijacking, when the aircraft landed in Accra in January 1982, after the December 31, 1981 Revolution.The news of the coup reached them when the plane landed in Banjul, the Gambia and the aircraft was diverted to Sierra Leone for safety of the crew. They were there for two weeks.
The former Military Intelligence Officer is now suffering a stroke he developed eight years ago. Ex-Sergeant Danso, who served the GAF for 18 years before his arrest, now moves with difficulty. He receives treatment at the 37 Military Hospital once a year.
He moves very slowly and was helped to the witness seat of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) public hearing in Accra on Wednesday, where he narrated his ordeal to the nine-member Commission.
Ex-Sergeant Danso said from the Airport, he was detained for two weeks without charge at the Gondar Barracks, along with some political figures including Nana Okutwer Bekoe, Nana Akwasi Agyeman and one Nii Odai Ayiku.
He was later detained for five years at the Ussher Fort Prison, still without charge.
He said he was discharged with high commendation from the Army upon his release in January 1987, but payment for his pension became effective in 1992. His release was also not covered with official documents.
The Ex-Sergeant who sobbed most of the time during his narration, said he petitioned Col J. Y. Asase, then Co-ordinator for Committees for the Defence Revolution, the Army Headquarters and the Ministry of Defence but to not avail.
Now with three children, no wife, Ex-Sergeant Danso prayed the Commission for resettlement.
He also asked to be compensated for the five years detention and the pension for the five years delay in the payment of his pension. Commissioner General Emmanuel Alexander Erskine asked the Ex-Sergeant to raise the issue of documents covering his discharge with the Records Unit and inform him personally.
Another witness, Mr Lawrence Aufei Fianko, complained about the deformity of his left thumb as a result of the brutalities meted out to him in 1966 after the overthrow of the government of Dr Kwame Nkrumah. The ex-Presidential Guard, who was then on duty at the Flagstaff House, said no sooner had the personnel on duty successfully evacuated Madam Fathia Nkrumah, the then First Lady to safety than they were arrested by soldiers.
The soldiers took the guards, including himself, to the Switchback Road, ordered them to take their shirts off and subjected them to beatings, after which they were sent to the Burma Camp and the Police Headquarters.
The soldiers asked them to lie on their backs and look at the blazing sun. When he closed his eyes, one of them hit his left thumb with the butt of the gun, deforming his left thumb since then.
Mr Fianko said he was transferred to the Nsawam Prisons, where he first spent six months in the Criminal Detainees Block, then to the Special Block, for three months and to the Ussher Fort Prison for three months.
He was released on the first anniversary of the National Liberation Council, but was seriously sick after his release. He condemned military take-overs, and appealed to the Commission to do all within its power to prevent further political upheavals in the country.
Madam Abena Tawiah, another witness, who hails Akyem Manso, said policemen took her and her brother hostage for alleged harbouring a brother, Major Okyere, implicated in a suspected a coup plot. They rained bullets on her house at Akyem Manso, where her brother Major Okyere had been a week earlier.
She said after issuing her with death threats if she did not release Major Okyere, the police beat her with their weapons and arrested her and her brother at Dumfa and sent him to the Kyebi Police Station.
The police made her crawl on her knees on the street, as they beat her with a nylon rope. She added that for the two weeks, she was isolated in the cells, and was subjected to beatings each morning. His brother was also beaten severely to the extent that he lost one eye.
After they were granted bail, the Police came and searched her house again for Major Okyere.
Madam Tawiah said she was invited to the CID Headquarters in Accra and detained for two weeks.
She said she and her brother were afraid to seek redress, and did not report what happened to them.
According to Madam Tawiah, her eldest son, then 20 years, had to abandon his education and take care of his siblings, one of who was then four years old.
Her resources were spent on footing her hospital bills. As a result she could not educate any of her children above basic school.
Husbands told to be open with their wives
Accra, Sept. 3, GNA - Professor Florence Abena Dolphyne, member of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), on Wednesday cautioned husbands to be open with their wives in all their endeavours because the women and children suffered when something went wrong.She said the Commission had heard evidence by women whose husbands were arrested and seen no more, yet they did not know the activities their husbands were engaged in. She said although the women persistently enquired about heir husbands' activities, they were told nothing. Professor Dolphyne, who was reacting to evidence given by Madam Margaret Afful, a trader, whose husband, John Christian Hagan was arrested in 1983 and has since not been seen, noted that it would do the society a lot of good if husbands stopped this behaviour.
Madam Afful said John Hagan was a graduate from the Cape Coast University working with Rothmans Kingsize.
The witness said he was also the chairman of the Workers Defence Committee, adding that though he was not a soldier he always held meetings with them sometimes staying with them late into the night. "He had a soldier friend called Akresi Sarpong whom he always went out with and did not even return home sometimes. When I asked what business they transacted outside, he always ignored me."
According to Madam Afful, his husband went to work one day and did not return, adding that a colleague from his workplace informed her that Hagan had been arrested and sent to Gondar Barracks.
She said she went to his office to find out the cause of his arrest, adding that Mr B.A. Mensah, then the Director, told her that Flt. Lt. Rawlings had sent some soldiers to bring him to the Gondar Barracks to be questioned.
According to Madam Afful, Mr B.A. Mensah offered to give her some money to take home because she would not see her husband again but she refused the offer.
She said some of her husband's friends at the office told her that his friend Akrsi Sarpong led the soldiers that arrested him. They claimed he was going to be questioned because he knew something about the Akatapore coup.
Madam Afful said when she visited him at Gondar Barraks her husband had been beaten to the extent that he could not hear in one ear. He told her that he had a problem with Mr B.A. Mensah who had reported him hence his arrest.
"I visited my husband with his sister for sometime at the Gondar Barracks but we were later told not to come and visit him again. "Since then I have not seen my husband in spite of the numerous enquiries I carried out."
She said she did not see Akresi Sarpong to find out why he led soldiers to arrest her husband and he also never looked her up to find out how she was faring with the three children.
Madam Afful pleaded with the Commission to help her cater for the children, especially the last born who wanted to go to school but due to financial constraints she was unable to do so.
Members of the Commission asked the witness a series of questions to unravel the mystery surrounding the arrest of her husband and promised to help find where he was and or what happened to him. They also said they would see how best she could be helped her cater for her children.
