Torture by soldiers has incapacitated me -Trader

Kumasi (Ashanti Region) - Madam Mary Dufie, a Kumasi trader, told the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) on Tuesday that severe beatings she suffered from some soldiers in 1982 had left her incapacitated. Madam Dufie, who mounted the witness box in a wheel chair, said at the time of her brutal assault, she was five months pregnant.

Testifying before the Commission at its first public hearing held outside Accra at the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) Hall in Kumasi, she said she owned a store at Kejetia.

She said one day while selling her wares, a group of soldiers pounced on her and gave her a severe thrashing and took away three tons of iron rods she had in front of her store. Madam Dufie said four months after her ordeal, she gave birth to a baby girl and after the delivery she became crippled.

She urged the Commission to assist her get back the iron rods seized from her by the soldiers. When asked by Christian Appiagyei, one of the Commissioners, if she had earlier petitioned any authority for the treatment by the soldiers, she replied that she reported the matter to the police but no action was taken.

General Emmanuel Erskine (rtd), another Commissioner, said he was ashamed of the behaviour of the soldiers, adding that as a nation, it was important to resolve never to go through such experience. Nana Yaw Boakye, a goldsmith, sculptor and a transport operator, recounted the injustice he suffered in 1982.

He said his 2m CFA Francs, 650 French Francs and 2,000 cedis were confiscated. Nana Boakye told the Commission that he had travelled to Abidjan to buy tyres for his business but learnt that he could get them at cheaper prices in Nigeria.

He said he therefore decided to fly back to Accra to connect another flight to Nigeria. At the Kotoka International Airport, he said, he was arrested for not declaring the various foreign currencies on him.

The monies were subsequently confiscated and I was later put before a Public Tribunal then chaired by one Agyekum. "At the tribunal, I was denied representation by a counsel. I was asked the number of children I had at the time and when I said seven, they gave me seven years."

Nana Boakye said the seven years was in respect of the foreign currency and that he was jailed another three years for the 2,000 cedis found in his possession to bring the total sentence to 10 years. He said he was released after serving one year in prison on grounds of ill health.

Asked if he later petitioned against the confiscation of the monies, he replied "yes", saying, he complained to the then Inspector-General of Police (IGP). In another answer to a question by counsel for the Commission, as to whether he was told why he was given that treatment, Nana Boakye said, "they said I was trafficking in currency," a charge he vehemently denied.

He threw the large crowd at the public gallery into laughter when Nana Boakye, an ex-serviceman, remarked, "we fought for freedom and justice but not freedom and nonsense."