Politicians advised to do legitimate business

General Emmanuel Alexander Erskine, a member of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), holding public hearings in Accra, on Wednesday stated that politics was not a professional career, and advised politicians and political activists to do other legitimate businesses for a living. "Politics is not a professional career, so that you have to depend on it at the neglect of other things. While in politics, we have to find other legitimate things to do to live" General Esrkine said.

The General's statement was in reaction to evidence from a witness, who said he was arrested in January 1982, after the December 31, 1981 coup, and detained for four months, for being a District Vigilante Organiser.

Mr Aaron Kwabena Takyi, from Assin Fosu, who said he had 14 children by two wives, did not only lose his position and job, but his oil palm and maize farms were also raided by people in the community.

The witness said he did his work, which was to distribute scarce basic necessities like soap, cooking oil, bread, and toothpaste, which were then popularly called "essential commodities" with zeal. He said he was also very strict, and always on the lookout for prominent people who did wrong thing to expose them.

Mr Takyi said he joined Dr Hilla Limann's People National Party in 1980, and added that he reported himself to the Police after the coup when a number of his colleagues in the community were arrested.

He said police heckled, insulted and detained them for 10 days without charge, after which they were transferred in the night to the Cape Coast Prison amidst protests, which the Police did not take.

Mr Takyi said they were detained for two months at the Cape Coast Prison, during which they were fed with bad food and denied visitors, and then transferred in a Land Rover to the Cantonments Police Station and then to the Usher Fort Prisons.

The Witness said after being detained for one week, they were brought before a Citizens Vetting Committee (CVC) and interrogated by one Kofi Awoonor and then released.

Mr Takyi said they were left stranded, as they were not provided with any transport or means to send them back home. The Witness said he " felt he was out of the world" during his incarceration.