“I cannot imagine how we can forget the torture and heinous crimes committed against us. But I can assure you that we ready to forgive our perpetrators.” Ex Cpl Sawunde, formerly of the Kumasi 4BN, and one of the victims tortured by the State security apparatus of the then PNDC government has indicated.
Speaking to The Statesman after submitting an eight-page statement on the various abuses and torture he suffered, to the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), he noted that there is no way they can forget what happened to them in “those dark days of our alive”. It was terrible, and the scare of those events are always fresh in our memories,” he lamented.
Cpl Sawunde noted that to ensure that forgiveness really prevails, perpetrators must be bold enough to say: “We are sorry, please forgive us.” He emphasised that the success of the reconciliation would depend largely on who committed those crimes against humanity, adding that if majority of Ghanaians tortured are ready to forgive and reconcile with their assailants, it is up to them to reciprocate the gesture with “we are sorry”.
The ex-military officer noted that he was arrested while on duty at Kumasi with the charge of being a threat to national security”. He stated that even after the investigators had found nothing, no evidence of criminally against him, there were still some elements who wanted him to be killed.
“I pleaded to be sacked from the military but those guys were simply not listening to me. My friend, Yeboah was killed. I had my fingernails and teeth removed. Look, I’m too young to be using artificial teeth,” he stressed.
Sawunde noted that for about eight years, he was imprisoned for no crime committed. He indicated that, while at the Nsawam Prison, his wife got a serious accident when she was paying him a visit. “As a result of that fatal accident my wife is now deformed. She can’t even do basic house chores. Within a short period, my whole life became bleak with no hope. My small boy is now a truck pusher in Kumasi because there was nobody to cater for him. How do you expert me to forget such incidents?” he questioned.
The ex-Cpl intoned: Anytime I look at the condition of my wife and unfortunate predicament of my son, somebody has really tortures my life. My own condition cannot allow me to forget what I have gone through” I say to myself that.
He called on those victimised and tortured to forgive their perpetrators, even though they can never forget those dark days of their lives. He, however, expressed his co-operation and that of his colleagues who have constituted themselves as Association of International Peace Seekers toward the reconciliation process.
Meanwhile, a young man called Victor Akpobi has also petitioned the Reconciliation Commission on what he described as “failure to seek appropriate compensation” when he was knocked down by a Ghana News Agency (GNA) vehicle in 1986.
Akpobi said he was knocked by the said vehicle with registration number GV 2171, driven by one Lotsu, when he was then in class three at the Police Depot 2 Primary School. He noted that he was rushed to the Korle-Bu Hospital where his broken leg was put in a Plastic of Paris (POP).
The victim noted that when GNA was contacted, they were informed that vehicle was for the government and so nobody would entertain his complaint for compensation. “This made my parents not to pursue the case for even an insurance claim,” he said.
Apkopbi told The Statesman that after he was discharged, his leg started to rot. He was sent back to the hospital where upon further examination and treatment, he was discharged. He noted that as a result of that incident he was not able to carry on with his education, not forgetting the deformed condition he finds himself now.
Akpobi said he petitioned the Commission because a government agency, after causing such a physical deformity to him including shattering his education, failed to compensate him. “I think my fundamental rights and liberties were totally abused. I wanted to join the force work but now I don’t have the leg to wear boot. Slippers is the only foot wear for me”. He emphasised.
