NRC Rounds Up Sitting in Tamale

The National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) rounded up its two-week sitting in Tamale last Friday with another pathetic story from one Walewale-based unemployed woman, Madam Alima Ibrahim.

Madam Ibrahim who looked quiet old and wept throughout her narration, said soldiers burnt her chest and breasts with butts of cigarettes for allegedly diverting cloth in Bolgatanga in November 1982.

Dressed in a typical "Northern" women style with a 'mayafi' on her head, Madam Ibrahim said she used to cart cloth from Bolgatanga to sell at the Walewale night market and other places. Her goods were seized by some soldiers on her return from a trip to do more purchasing. Without any explanation, she said the soldiers seized her other merchandise and drove her to the Bolga Barracks where she was beaten severely.

Four days later after she had been drilled by the soldiers, she said she was released after which she sought medical attention. Her melancholic facial looks moved the audience which had turned up in numbers when she said she had not seen her bail of cloths since that encounter with the soldiers.

Another witness, Madam Mariatu Alhassan who swore on the Quran in the Mampruli language said a group of soldiers seized her ten and half pieces of cloth and another seven pieces of cloth belonging to her daughter without any reason during the water crisis in Walewale in the 1980s.

She said the soldiers who forced her trunk open and took the cloth alleged that she was hoarding them. She said she denied the charge. She was taken to the Police Station and was beaten with many others. She said the torture she went through at the hands of the soldiers had affected her breathing. She said she was released the following day and reported daily to the police and stopped "because nobody was minding us."

Asked whether after her release she made a formal complaint to the police she answered, "I would have made a complaint to the police but that was where we were beaten." In an answer to a question by one of the Commissioners, Mr. Christian Appiah-Agyei, she said the police witnessed the molestation but did nothing about it. She said she did not have her cloth back and had to share the debt with her daughter.

Another witness, Alhaji Sirazu Alhassan told the Commission without three of its members that his transport business collapsed following his arrest by soldiers again with the accusation that he was hoarding cloth in his house in 1981. The soldiers, he said, stormed his house and after finding nothing took him to a Police Station. He said he was threatened on many occasions by guns which were pointed at his nose and ears to "tell the truth".

On one occasion, he said, he was stripped naked and was put into a coffin - all to scare him to talk but he said he did not budge. He said some of the residents who witnessed the scene went to his relatives to inform them to prepare towards his funeral. Alhaji Alhassan said but for the intervention of a superior officer the soldiers would have "done something" else to him.

He said his bank account containing ?250, 000 at the Bolgatanga Ghana Commercial Bank was frozen and was asked to appear before the Citizens Vetting Committee (CVC) to prove his case. He said he proved to the CVC that he had being paying taxes on his transport business but the Committee said the regime had directed that all those with over ?50, 000 in their account must have it confiscated.

Due to this he said ?185, 000 was deducted from his account.

Alhaji Alhassan said the ordeal he went through made one of his wives divorce him, his business was destroyed and had to sell two of his vehicles to make ends meet. He said "today the other two other vehicles have broken down." Alhaji Alhassan whose account was a mixture of comedy and tragedy said he has three wives and fourteen children. He said in an answer, "How do I pay their school fees when I had no money."

How many children do you have?

"Didn't you hear me say twelve. I now have fourteen children because when there is no money you have to reduce your burden.

Mr. Seidu Lansah said he was tortured by soldiers after trying to save a little girl who was being chased by a soldier who alleged that the girl was selling pineapples beyond the control price in 1982. He said he lost three of his teeth as a result of the torture and was released from detention after a month.

Baba Alhassan Yakubo wants the commission to refund his father, Alhassan Yakubo's vehicle which was seized by soldiers after the 1966 coup. A former Regional Secretary for East Gonja of the Popular Front Party, Seidu Prince Mahama said he was victimised by soldiers because he opposed the 1979 revolution. He said his sight was affected due to the torture he went through.

Madam Fusena Abukari's left hand and breast is were maimed due to a stray bullet which hit her in a bus to Bawku in 1982. She said she had a miscarriage after the incident.

Sittings move to Accra on July 8.