Colonel George Emmanuel Amuah, former Commandant of the Ghana Nautical College, on Tuesday told the National Reconciliation Commission that Raid pulled a gun on him during an ejection exercise.
According to Col Amuah said someone wrote to former President Rawlings pleading for clemency for him and for some of his assets to be de-confiscated. He said his wife came down to pursue the de-confiscation of his house. She applied to the Assets Confiscation Committee and was asked to give the occupant six months. The time elapsed but Riad who was occupying the house on the instructions of Flt. Lt Rawlings would not move out.
When a bailiff brought an ejection notice, Riad pulled a gun on him. Col. Amuah said the house was given to a sister of Riad and questioned the position of Riad in Government.
He said former President Rawlings entertained his friends in the said house and the time Riad left the house when the NDC lost the elections, he owed a total of ?64m in telephone bills.
Col. Amuah challenged the former boss of the Divestiture Implementation Committee to release one of his companies taken over by the Management Development and Productivity Institute. He also asked for the whereabouts of one Victor Asare who was picked by the security agencies in 1992.
Colonel Amuah also said the only way the country could be reconciled was to bring former President Jerry John Rawlings, Major Boakye Djan and all living collaborators of military coups to trial and punish them accordingly.
"The right thing must be done; that's the only way the country can be reconciled to its past," Col Amuah said. He told the Commission's public hearing in Accra that Flt. Lt. Rawlings was present in 1979, when a Tribunal failed to grant him the permission to attend his mother's funeral. He said he was brought from detention to attend that trial.
Tearful Col. Amuah said his mother died in distress and as the only child, he was in a position to bury her, but "I did not see the face of my mother before she was buried."
"My mother was buried by my wife and strangers after all her toil to make me what I am today. It is very difficult, this episode in my life", he said. Colonel Amuah said he felt relieved for being given the chance to mourn her mother by weeping, and expressed the hope that his request of a good report would be a guide to posterity.
"I'm worried about my children and grandchildren," he said. Col Amuah, also former Technical Director of the Border Guard Headquarters, said he went into business when he retired from the Army in 1966 following the coup that toppled the government of the Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
He said after a return from a business trip in May 1978 he was picked by the Special Branch. He was detained for one month on a number of charges including illegal transfer of money and tax evasion involving, G. E. Amuah and Associates, one of his six companies.
He was later released on a self-cognisance bail. He said he was kept under investigation for six months and taken to court but all the charges against him were dropped, and he was acquitted and discharged.
One Vashi Khubchandani, an Indian Manager of the Company, who was implicated in the investigation, ran away. Col. Amuah said he had been a friend of the Agyeman family, the family of the Mrs Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings.
He said gunshots were heard on 4 June 1979, which turned out to be a coup involving Flt. Lt. Rawlings, the husband of Nana Konadu. Col. Amuah said he visited Nana Konadu and suggested that they went to the Christian Council and the Secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference to prevent bloodshed because of the imprisonment of Flt. Lt. Rawlings at that time. He said if the coup failed Flt. Lt. Rawlings could be shot without trial.
He said five people - he and his wife, one Mrs Felicia Boateng and Mr and Mrs Agyeman, Mrs Rawlings parents - went to the Secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference, Rev. Father Senoo at Osu Kuku Hill, but the place looked deserted.
They followed to Asylum Down, where they finally found the Rev. Father who took their message, and promised to act within his powers to prevent any bloodshed.
Col. Amuah said on their return Nana Konadu, who before their mission sat sadly shouted, "Uncle George, Revo, you ain't see nothing yet." He said he suspected that Nana Konadu herself was involved in the coup.
He said three days after the coup he was called on radio to report to the Air Force Guardroom and he obliged. Col. Amuah said he was expecting to be thanked for his peace mission, but he was rather ordered into the guardroom after he had told his driver to leave.
He said Captain Michel asked him to roll on the ground. He was also shaved, but another soldier asked Michel to stop the torturing.
Col. Amuah said he kept shuttling between the Air Force Guardroom and the Military Hospital under guard, and he was in detention from that time till the day after Rawlings handed over power to the Limann Administration.
He said no one asked him a question during that period and whenever he asked why he was in detention, he was told, "You are Rawlings' Special Case."
Col Amuah said on hindsight, he suspected he was arrested and detained because he was quite affluent with luxury cars and described Rawlings "as man who detested affluence." According to Col Amuah, he met a number of business people, including Nana Batamahene, Benjamin Yemo, alias Kojo Sardine and Ben Eshun on the death roll.
Col. Amuah said during his detention, soldiers kept tormenting his wife telling her that he would be killed. He said Major General Robert Kotei and Col Roger Felli were brought in from Nsawam Prisons, placed in the guardroom and later taken out and executed.
He said he hardly recognised a man who was taken out and tortured. He was brought back with his head swollen and his eyes buried in his head. He himself was hospitalised twice in prison.
Two children of General Yaw Boakye who slaughtered their father's goat for a meal were arrested brought to the guard room and made to walk on their knees on gravel until their skin peeled off to the bone.
He said he had forgiven Capt Michel, who had since apologised for his atrocities. According to Col. Amuah, one Capt Korda hit him in the face. "I wish I were strong to beat him also. Then I would forgive him".
Col Amuah said the experiences he went through during his detention had caused him a lot of trauma. He said after his release he went to his office the next day, but he was arrested that same day on the orders of J. E. Appiah, the Special Prosecutor.
He was detained in the Ussher Fort Prison and the same charges that a high court had dropped were again levelled against him. A letter from the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council also confiscated all his business concerns and personal property.
He was convicted by a tribunal and had no right of appeal. Eventually, he was incarcerated in Nsawam Prison, but escaped and went into exile for 22 years and returned after the National Democratic Congress (NDC) lost the election in 2000.
