Today’s sitting at the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) was disrupted for an hour after a witness collapsed while giving evidence.
Joseph Kodwo Ampah, 76, a London-based Ghanaian lawyer, who flew in to give evidence about his arrest, torture and imprisonment in 1982 , appeared to have suffered a heart attack. He had earlier in his statement to the commission said that he was suffering from a heart problem, which he contracted while in incarceration at the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons.
It appeared to almost everybody in the chamber of the Old Parliament House that Mr Ampah was about to sit properly or draw the chair closer to the microphone but fell sideways on the floor prompting those at the ground floor of the chamber to rush to the scene.
He was rushed to the Ridge hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival. Mr Ampah is reported to have developed a heart failure while testifying at the commission. The Commission resumed sitting after an hour but the incident affected proceedings.
The day had earlier started normally after the traditional prayers by Fr. Palmer-Buckle after which a man who looked like he was in his late 60s took the witness seat and swore by the Bible to speak the truth.
The late Mr. Joseph Kofi Ampah lived in London as a barrister but was in Ghana in 1982 for a six-week vacation during which he went to Tarkwa. While in Tarkwa, he asked his father-in-law who is a goldsmith to produce some jewelry to be taken to London for his family.
When the task was completed and departure date was due he wrapped the finished products and the remaining gold and went to the airport. Two security officers who inspected his briefcase in which the items were kept asked him to move on since they were not of commercial importance.
This was not to be as three other security officers who he identified as members of the then National Defence Committee approached and asked him about the three cars which he imported into the country. They told him that they were taking him away for investigation on the subject but an army officer who happened to be on the scene at the time told them to take the registration numbers of the cars and allow him to proceed on his trip but they would not budge and thus the trip could not come on.
On the way to where they were taking him to he said they met Flt. Lt. Jerry Rawlings who flashed them to stop after which they told him that they had got the man who brought the three cars.
At this point in his narration he showed signs of collapsing and then he dropped to the floor towards his right side with some NRC staff rushing to him before a medic joined them.
When proceedings resumed one former Sgt. Emmanuel Bishop Kwabla Dartey took his turn during which he recalled an event which happened to him on 26 October 1989 while he was on duty as a policeman in the outskirts of Dzodze in the Volta Region.
He said he had erected a roadblock to warn over-speeding drivers about the presence of school children in the vicinity. A military vehicle he said stopped on reaching the spot. The soldiers came down and removed the roadblock and searched him including the surrounding areas after which he and his colleagues were taken to the Castle in Accra where the late WO Tetteh an ADC to Rawlings) and another soldier came and took their particulars and they were left in the guardroom. Here he said they were made to slap each other after being forced to roll on the ground. After this treatment he said they were made to write statements under duress.
One of the soldiers at the Castle on seeing some tribal marks on both of his arms said he was going to fire at him to determine whether the bullets could penetrate his body and so he begged him to spare his life.
After being kept in the guardroom for 86 days they were finally released but warned not to divulge details of what they had undergone in the guardroom if they don't want to be re-arrested and taken to an unknown destination.
Before their release an edition of the Daily Graphic had carried a story with a list of some policemen including himself, who had been dismissed for engaging in corrupt activities, a charge he disagree with outright.
Question time for this witness was hectic because Chairman Amua-Sakyi wanted to find out whether it was right for him to erect a roadblock without authority from his superiors and whether this was a good example for other policemen to emulate? After going round the questions for a while he finally said it was wrong.
A stout-looking man, Awudu Alhassan was next. When he began his story which occurred in a village near Bimbila in the Northern Region, rather scared the commissioners and others when he fidgeted with his hands amidst sobs. Nobody wanted a repeat of what happened earlier: death of a witness. But for the intermittent sobbing as he narrated his story though nothing untoward happened.
Soldiers had descended on Awudu and his brothers on a farm on which they were working with their father's tractor demanding to have it taken away. That was in 1982 but one of his brother's refused to allow them to have it after telling them that the tractor was bought from their own toils and not a bank loan to which the soldiers said was insulting.
A struggle ensued after one of the soldiers removed the ignition key of the tractor. Awudu was shoved and he fell on a tree stump and he sustained a deep cut on his buttock.
One of the soldiers he said spoke in Hausa, "Kill them they are Dagombas they have juju". His brother had this time been wounded and as he lay on the ground he demanded water to drink but he could not assist him he told the commission.
His father who had then brought the tractor papers to prove his ownership could not stop the soldiers who were driving it away. The old man he said asked why Awudu had not given water to his brother and had allowed him to die.
His dead brother was carried away on the back of a woman and later buried and his father who said he too was going to die took ill and within a month also passed away. Awudu told the commission that his injury could not be treated at the Bimbila hospital because there was no doctor there at the time and so upon the advice of his friend who had taken him to the health facility in the first place , they started off for Salaga but on their way they met some soldiers. He said out of fright he fell off the motorbike and the abscess which he had developed burst. The military vehicle which had then stopped had a medic in it and this man administered first aid on his wounds and gave him some oral treatment too. He asked them to go back as there was no doctor at Salaga.
The commissioners took turns to console Awudu with one asking him whether he still fears soldiers. His answer was that even though he no longer fears them he avoids meeting them on his way.
Maulvi Wahab Adam and some of his colleagues after inspecting the scars reported to the commission that Awudu Alhassan had three deep scars on his right buttocks with an average depth of 1 inch. They also found a more than one inch scar on one of his knees and another one on his right arm caused by bayonet wounds. He also said he had a deformed right ring finger.
One of the commissioners told him to stop shedding tears because she had observed him for some days now and found him to have been weeping a lot. He said he works for the Forestry Commission but the salary is not enough for him to take care of his siblings most of who are now at the Konkonba market where they live.
Sitting continues next week.
Today’s sitting at the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) was disrupted for an hour after a witness collapsed while giving evidence.
Joseph Kodwo Ampah, 76, a London-based Ghanaian lawyer, who flew in to give evidence about his arrest, torture and imprisonment in 1982 , appeared to have suffered a heart attack. He had earlier in his statement to the commission said that he was suffering from a heart problem, which he contracted while in incarceration at the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons.
It appeared to almost everybody in the chamber of the Old Parliament House that Mr Ampah was about to sit properly or draw the chair closer to the microphone but fell sideways on the floor prompting those at the ground floor of the chamber to rush to the scene.
He was rushed to the Ridge hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival. Mr Ampah is reported to have developed a heart failure while testifying at the commission. The Commission resumed sitting after an hour but the incident affected proceedings.
The day had earlier started normally after the traditional prayers by Fr. Palmer-Buckle after which a man who looked like he was in his late 60s took the witness seat and swore by the Bible to speak the truth.
The late Mr. Joseph Kofi Ampah lived in London as a barrister but was in Ghana in 1982 for a six-week vacation during which he went to Tarkwa. While in Tarkwa, he asked his father-in-law who is a goldsmith to produce some jewelry to be taken to London for his family.
When the task was completed and departure date was due he wrapped the finished products and the remaining gold and went to the airport. Two security officers who inspected his briefcase in which the items were kept asked him to move on since they were not of commercial importance.
This was not to be as three other security officers who he identified as members of the then National Defence Committee approached and asked him about the three cars which he imported into the country. They told him that they were taking him away for investigation on the subject but an army officer who happened to be on the scene at the time told them to take the registration numbers of the cars and allow him to proceed on his trip but they would not budge and thus the trip could not come on.
On the way to where they were taking him to he said they met Flt. Lt. Jerry Rawlings who flashed them to stop after which they told him that they had got the man who brought the three cars.
At this point in his narration he showed signs of collapsing and then he dropped to the floor towards his right side with some NRC staff rushing to him before a medic joined them.
When proceedings resumed one former Sgt. Emmanuel Bishop Kwabla Dartey took his turn during which he recalled an event which happened to him on 26 October 1989 while he was on duty as a policeman in the outskirts of Dzodze in the Volta Region.
He said he had erected a roadblock to warn over-speeding drivers about the presence of school children in the vicinity. A military vehicle he said stopped on reaching the spot. The soldiers came down and removed the roadblock and searched him including the surrounding areas after which he and his colleagues were taken to the Castle in Accra where the late WO Tetteh an ADC to Rawlings) and another soldier came and took their particulars and they were left in the guardroom. Here he said they were made to slap each other after being forced to roll on the ground. After this treatment he said they were made to write statements under duress.
One of the soldiers at the Castle on seeing some tribal marks on both of his arms said he was going to fire at him to determine whether the bullets could penetrate his body and so he begged him to spare his life.
After being kept in the guardroom for 86 days they were finally released but warned not to divulge details of what they had undergone in the guardroom if they don't want to be re-arrested and taken to an unknown destination.
Before their release an edition of the Daily Graphic had carried a story with a list of some policemen including himself, who had been dismissed for engaging in corrupt activities, a charge he disagree with outright.
Question time for this witness was hectic because Chairman Amua-Sakyi wanted to find out whether it was right for him to erect a roadblock without authority from his superiors and whether this was a good example for other policemen to emulate? After going round the questions for a while he finally said it was wrong.
A stout-looking man, Awudu Alhassan was next. When he began his story which occurred in a village near Bimbila in the Northern Region, rather scared the commissioners and others when he fidgeted with his hands amidst sobs. Nobody wanted a repeat of what happened earlier: death of a witness. But for the intermittent sobbing as he narrated his story though nothing untoward happened.
Soldiers had descended on Awudu and his brothers on a farm on which they were working with their father's tractor demanding to have it taken away. That was in 1982 but one of his brother's refused to allow them to have it after telling them that the tractor was bought from their own toils and not a bank loan to which the soldiers said was insulting.
A struggle ensued after one of the soldiers removed the ignition key of the tractor. Awudu was shoved and he fell on a tree stump and he sustained a deep cut on his buttock.
One of the soldiers he said spoke in Hausa, "Kill them they are Dagombas they have juju". His brother had this time been wounded and as he lay on the ground he demanded water to drink but he could not assist him he told the commission.
His father who had then brought the tractor papers to prove his ownership could not stop the soldiers who were driving it away. The old man he said asked why Awudu had not given water to his brother and had allowed him to die.
His dead brother was carried away on the back of a woman and later buried and his father who said he too was going to die took ill and within a month also passed away. Awudu told the commission that his injury could not be treated at the Bimbila hospital because there was no doctor there at the time and so upon the advice of his friend who had taken him to the health facility in the first place , they started off for Salaga but on their way they met some soldiers. He said out of fright he fell off the motorbike and the abscess which he had developed burst. The military vehicle which had then stopped had a medic in it and this man administered first aid on his wounds and gave him some oral treatment too. He asked them to go back as there was no doctor at Salaga.
The commissioners took turns to console Awudu with one asking him whether he still fears soldiers. His answer was that even though he no longer fears them he avoids meeting them on his way.
Maulvi Wahab Adam and some of his colleagues after inspecting the scars reported to the commission that Awudu Alhassan had three deep scars on his right buttocks with an average depth of 1 inch. They also found a more than one inch scar on one of his knees and another one on his right arm caused by bayonet wounds. He also said he had a deformed right ring finger.
One of the commissioners told him to stop shedding tears because she had observed him for some days now and found him to have been weeping a lot. He said he works for the Forestry Commission but the salary is not enough for him to take care of his siblings most of who are now at the Konkonba market where they live.
Sitting continues next week.
