Policemen flogged me - Witness tells NRC

Accra, March 11, GNA- Madam Comfort Adwoa Dede, a Witness on Thursday told the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) that policemen laid her on a table at Begoro lorry station and flogged her after the June 4 1979 coup.

She said one Arthur, a police officer whose son bought fish from her at the Begoro market caused her beating after accusing her that the fish was too expensive.

Madam Dede said she was then carrying a six-month old baby at the time of her arrest.

She said on the orders of Arthur, three other policemen stripped her cover cloth and stretched her on a table while two of them took turns to flog her 12 lashes each.

She said the chiefs, linguists and other opinion leaders watched the beating, expressing no sympathy for her as they also held the view that she was selling fish at high prices.

Madam Dede said she had injuries from the beating and that when her son tried to intervene and appealed to the police to beat him instead, they threatened to kill him.

She said the policemen later sold her remaining fish at "controlled price" but did not give her the proceeds.

Witness said she could not walk after the beating and she was hospitalised for a week and underwent three months' further treatment before she was able to lie on her side.

She said sometime after, she began bleeding profusely and was admitted at the hospital again. Later she found out that she became diabetic and hypertensive.

Madam Dede said she was still on medication and could not go back to her business.

She said she later lost her husband and it became difficult to care for her seven children.

General Emmanuel Alexander Erskine, a Member of the Commission condemned the attitude of the police, who "instead of being civilian friendly rather took the law into their own hands" by molesting the witness.

When Madam Fofo Sasraku from Teshie in Accra took the Witness seat, she complained that she lost some items including clothing material glassware and some cash when her store and that of her mother in Makola No.1 Market were looted during the regime of the erstwhile Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) in 1979.

She could not quantify the cost the lost items, saying she did not know who looted the store.

Madam Sasraku said she had become indebted to a number of people after the incident, which had caused the collapse of her business. Most Reverend Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle, a Member of the Commission expressed appreciation to Madam Sasraku, when she said had forgiven those who looted her store.

Witness tells NRC he was unlawfully dismissed from Police Service

Accra, March 11, GNA- Joseph Kwabena Taylor, a security officer with the University of Ghana on Thursday told the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) that he was unlawfully dismissed from the Ghana Police Service in 1987 on an alleged charge of misconduct. He said he was employed in the Police Service in 1978, adding that he was working as a clerk at the Kaneshie Police Station Orderly Room in 1987 when one Chief Inspector Adjapong, the Station Officer, asked him to arrest one Alhaji who was dealing in mercury. He said he and a colleague, one Corporal Twum arrested the Alhaji, and later handed three bottles of mercury as exhibits to the station officer.

Mr Taylor said three days later Chief Inspector Adjapong alleged that the mercury exhibit was short of one bottle and charged the two of them to find it.

He said Cpl Twum later admitted taking the missing bottle of mercury, which he said he gave to his wife for safekeeping. Mr Taylor said Twum later returned the mercury to the station as demanded by the officer.

The witness said after a police Service Enquiry into the case, he was exonerated.

He said he resumed work for three weeks after which he was handed his dismissal letter.

When Commission members asked him to provide documents on the proceedings of the Service Enquiry and his dismissal Letter, Mr Taylor said the documents got burnt during a fire outbreak at his former residence.

Justice Amua-Sekyi, Chairman of the Commission expressed surprise when the Witness said he was denied a lawyer during the Service Enquiry and promised that the commission would investigate the matter.