Accra, Feb. 19, GNA - Alhaji Abubakari Musah, a Butcher at Ashaiman, on Wednesday told the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) the ex-president Jerry John Rawlings ordered his release from the Gondar Barracks cells in 1979, after he had been wrongfully arrested and tortured by one Corporal Peter Tasiri and five others. Alhaji Musah said in the wake of the June 4, 1979 uprising by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) Tasiri, then a member of the AFRC came to him (Musah) at his slaughterhouse at Ashiaman in the company of two other military men to buy cattle at the controlled prices.
"I refused to sell to him at the controlled prices he requested for, so he left in anger," he said. "The following day at 6am he came with five other military men and arrested me on allegations of having insulted them the previous day."
He said in his house he was g! iven three slaps and his money, one million CFA Francs, 350 US dollars, his passport and his Peugeot 504 car were taken from him, adding that he was then sent to the Gondar barracks. Alhaji Musah said at the Gondar barracks he was put in cells till about 3pm when he was brought out into the open and tortured and shaved with a broken bottle.
He said Tasiri threatened to kill him because he (Tasiri) claimed that he (Musah) was a bad person who practiced juju, adding that after about a week Tasiri returned to the cells and asked for him to be brought out and be shot because he had nightmares of him (Musah) chasing him with a cutlass.
Alhaji Musah said Tasiri was refused access to the cells until one day Rawlings called for him (Musah) to be brought to his office in the barracks.
"Rawlings asked for the reasons for my arrest and when he was told, he ordered my immediate release," he said. "He ev! en gave his personal car for me to be driven home."
He said later on November 29, 1983 he was picked up by three BNI personnel and 12 soldiers from his home to answer allegations of coup plot against the PNDC government at the time.
It was alleged that one RSM Billy, Afriyie, Alhaji Mustapha, Alhaji Sulemana and Col. Abittoe, who were declared dissidents at the time, were allegedly based in Togo and were using Alhaji Musah to plot a coup against the PNDC.
Alhaji Musah said in four different interrogations, he denied knowledge of any such plot, though he knew at least two of the alleged dissidents, adding that RSM Billy once sold a corn mill machine to him and Alhaji Mustapha was his brother.
He said he was detained at the BNI for four months and sent to the Usher Fort Prisons for another two years five months without trial. "I was then taken to the tribunal at the State House and on the account of some witnesses, I was sentenced to death by firing squa! d," he said.
"After three months of appeal, my appeal was dismissed and I was put in the condemned cells at Nsawam Prisons."
Alhaji Musah said at Nsawam, 21 people were picked up from his cell for execution but his sentence was changed to life imprisonment, adding that after 14 years in prison he was released in 1997 for reasons not known to him.
He said on his release he went to Mr. Peter Nanfuri, Director of BNI at the time when the BNI personnel seized his items and Nanfuri, who had then become the IGP, referred him to one Gyan at the BNI.
"I met Gyan and he told me he did not know the whereabout of my items but gave me a letter to be given to the Commission to make a formal request for my items," he said.
Alhaji Musah said till date he has not recovered his items, adding that as a result of his imprisonment two of three wives married other men and all his 10 children have b! ecome school dropouts.
