Witness tells NRC: "Only one bullet, that's all!"

Ex-Sergeant Abraham Kwaku Botchwey, formerly of the Armed Forces Training School, Tamale, on Wednesday told the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) that as operatives of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) tortured him, he desperately craved for death and asked them to fire only one bullet at him to end it all.

The ex-martial arts, military drill and weapon-handling instructor, said he was lured by his commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Brown and Lieutenant Iddrisu of the Military Intelligence Unit, to be tortured.

Ex-Sergeant Botchwey said the two men lured him to Accra for a warm-up exercise for a special exercise at Dwarf Island, near Akosombo, only to end up in the BNI cells to be tortured and information to be extracted from him.

He subsequently spent seven years in incarceration in different cells. He said as a Christian, he has forgiven Captain George Pattington, who was then the Commanding Officer of the Commando Unit, one Max Pobi and all the military people and the commandos that tortured him and asked them to show a similar gesture of reconciliation.

Led in evidence by Edmund Allotei Mingle, Ex-Sergeant Botchwey said on 23 February 1985, his Commanding Officer instructed him to see Lt. Iddrisu for an exercise at Dwarf Island but he ended up at the BNI where he was tortured, in what the operatives called "special comfort."

He said at the BNI he was undressed with only his pants on and marched to a cell where there were civilians, politicians and soldiers. These detainees told him that they were there for an alleged plot to assassinate the then Chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council, Flt. Lt. Jerry Rawlings.

He said the soldiers hit him with the butt of their guns and as she struggled with them, they handcuffed him from behind, blindfolded him and threw him into a car. After 45 minutes' drive, ex Sergeant Botchwey said, he slit open slightly the bandage that was used to blindfold him and upon familiar sounds and scenes, he realised that they were at Asuature.

He said at Asutuare he was threatened with death to tell "the truth," else he would be "finished and buried in one of the trenches". Ex Sergeant Botchwey said later he was then driven to Legon, and then to the Recce Regiment where one officer ordered one night that he should be taken out and water poured on him.

He said one Bawa Atalia and Bugri, both Military Intelligence officers, came again and continued torturing him until he shouted, "fire only one bullet into me; that's all". He said he told them that he would rather die than continue to endure the torture.

Ex-Sergeant Botchwey said the soldiers threatened death, saying, "This is the reason why we were sent to Cuba; we will finish you."

Ex Sergeant Botchwey said he struggled with the soldiers, and they used the nozzle of their guns to hit his legs, and that rendered him very weak.

The ex-sergeant said he was shocked to see Captain George Pattington, whom he said he had known as a friend, arrive there together with Max Pobi, and he Botchwey asked Captain Pattington why he was being tortured.

He said Captain Pattington then asked those beating him to stop and he left the scene. Ex-Sergeant Botchwey said he continued to struggle with the soldiers but they eventually overpowered him and his blood oozed out of his face.

Ex-Sergeant Botchwey said one of the soldiers hit his head with a gun and he fell unconscious. He said later in the afternoon the torturing continued, and three days later, he had a swollen face and was sent to the 37 Military Hospital where one Dr Koranteng sympathised with him and treated him.

Upon his return, three soldiers at the BNI, Asase Gyimah, Annor Kumi and Ampadu, forced him to sign a paper, apparently on his alleged conspiracy to overthrow the PNDC regime. Ex Sergeant Botchwey said he was later sent to the Ussher Fort Prison and kept in solitary confinement for six months and later made to join other prisoners.

Ex Sergeant Botchwey said he was in incarceration until 1987, and when he thought his release had finally come he was sent to Winneba Cells, and there he met people with sores all around their body, and prisoners went for about three days without food and no bath for about one week.

He said he was finally released from unlawful detention in 1990, and at the time he came out his wife who was forced out from the barracks divorced him and married another man.

He said he petitioned the Ministry of Defence to reinstate him, but that was to no avail and was later prevented from entering the barracks as ex-detainees were declared a threat to national security.

According to him after 17 years of service he was paid 2.7 million cedis which was too meagre.

Currently on a pension of 205,000 cedis monthly, Ex Sergeant Botchwey said he had petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice and President Kufuor but had not yet had any reply from them.

Ex- Corporal Boye Okai, formerly a driver cum military intelligence officer, who was led in evidence by Mrs Juliana Amonoo-Neizer, told the Commission that, he was picked by Adambuga, Terkpor, Braimah and Giwa at the Kotoka International Airport, on 25 May1982 with three other military intelligence officers just as they were disembarking from the plane that had brought them back from a peace keeping assignment in Lebanon.

He said they were forced into a pick-up Vehicle and were driven through an alternative route from the Airport to the Burma Camp.

Ex- Corporal Boye Okai said as they went along, the security agents stopped at a bridge and he (Ex- Corporal Okai) and others were beaten up, amidst slaps that had made him (Okai) to develop a hearing impairment.

They (those arrested) were made to swim to and fro for three times in a gutter of plenty water and then driven to the Ussher Fort Prisons, where he spent a total of five years and 16 days.

The ex soldier, who has five children told the Commission that after his 18 years of service, he was given 96,000 cedis as his benefit, and prayed the Commission to get him duly compensated.

He said he was on a monthly pension of 203,000, with a bank charge deduction of 10,000 cedis.

Members of the Commission were unanimous in expressing sympathy to the ex soldier. General Emmanuel Erskine, a member of the Commission, and former Commander of United Nations Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) praised the gallantry of Ex -Corporal Okine, and expressed the hope that "this sort of thing doesn't happen again".

Sitting continues.