Woman tell NCR of husband's ordeal

Madam Helen Vorodam, on Monday told the National Reconciliation Commission at its second week sittings in Tamale how 10 soldiers invaded the husband's residence on February 17, 1982 and ordered him into their vehicle and took him away to the Wa Police Station.

Madam Vorodam who pleaded with the Commission to observe a minute silence for her late husband, Augustine Vorodam, said the former Area Manager of the then Cotton Development Board was at table when the soldiers went into his premises, arrested and sent him to the Wa Police Station.

She said at the police station her husband who was subjected to many questions told them that he was not used to answering many questions at the same time.

Madam Vorodam said he was molested and locked up in cells for two weeks without bail while the soldiers returned to the house and took away 80 bags of maize, 1,250 bags of sorghum, 250 cattle and 150 ruminants belonging to him.

She said the soldiers told him that they had seized the items and the five shelves of seed cotton that he had stored for the state.

According to Madam Vorodam, the seized foodstuffs were sold to the public while the cattle and the ruminants were also sold to cattle dealers at "control price" and the proceeds taken away by the soldiers.

She mentioned Sergeant Bawa as one of the soldiers who arrested her husband

Madam Vorodam said in 1984 her husband received a letter from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture relieving him of his post and asking him to appear before the National Investigation Committee at Wa on an allegation that he diverted part of 30,000 cedis given to him to purchase seed cotton.

She said in 1995 and 1999, her husband petitioned the Ministry for his benefits but he was told that documents on him could not be found either at the Wa or the Tamale Offices.

Mr Albert Punamanbil Lebil, 26, a native of Tongo in the Upper East Region, testifying before the Commission said on March 6, 1988, he was travelling from Bawku to Bolgatanga on a mammy truck when soldiers at Nangodi shot at the vehicle.

He said a bullet grazed his chest, penetrating his left arm and hitting a pregnant woman who died instantly.

Mr Lebil said he became unconscious and was rushed to the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital, where he fell into a coma for some days.

He told the Commission that he was on admission for nine months, during which doctors removed pellets and pieces of bones from his damaged arm.

The witness said he was in the junior secondary school at the time of the incident and had to stay away from school for two years to undergo treatment while practicing to use his left hand to write since the right hand was damaged.

He said he had completed senior secondary school but could not go for his results because he owed the school. He therefore appealed for help to further his education.

Another petitioner, Madam Stella Kriba, unemployed, said on April 23, 1982, she was at home when a militiaman came into the house and shot her in the head rendering her unconscious.

She said she was rushed to the Navrongo Hospital where she remained unconscious for one and half months adding that, he was on admission for one year.

Madam Kriba, who was then 13 years old and now paralysed in the left leg and arm as a result of the shot, said she could not think well or do any hard work and had to drop out of school.

The petitioner, a mother of two, said the militiaman who shot her was arrested and sent to court where he was sentenced but he served only part of the term and was released.

She pleaded with the Commission to assist her to do some trading to help educate her children and also to meet her medical expenses.

Mr Richard Kwabena Abugumzio, now unemployed, said in 1979, he was returning from school with his mates at about 4.30 PM when they saw soldiers carrying blocks and pilling them on a man's back.

He said when he saw what the soldiers were doing to the man he shouted "oh", "oh" and the soldiers heard him.

The soldiers called him and when he obliged, they pulled some fibre plants and whipped him.

Mr Abugumzio said the soldiers not satisfied with the punishment, rushed him to a woman who was cooking food nearby and forced him to sit on the fire.

He said when he started to struggle the soldiers pressed him onto the fire and he sustained burns on his buttocks, penis and testicles.

Mr Abagumzio said in 1982, he was working at the Ghana Water and Sewerage Corporation and that one morning he picked his friend who was travelling to the State Transport Station

He said on their way, his friend tapped his back and asked him to stop and when he looked in the rider's mirror, he saw a soldier pointing his gun at them.

He said when they dismounted the motorbike, the soldier came and arrested them and led them into a room where they were confined with others.

The witness said he was taken to the then Upper Regional Administration where six soldiers stepped on his stomach and he shouted "oh God!." They lifted him high and dropped him onto the ground several times.

He said he later gave one of the soldiers a lift on his motorbike to the hospital to greet a wounded soldier on admission. He said while at the hospital, other soldiers also came to visit their colleagues but when they were going, they forgot about him and left, making it possible for him to escape.

Mr Asabilla Apaaba, a former livestock and foodstuff dealer and now a farmer, told the Commission that in 1982, he was transporting 9,000 tubers of yam, 25 bags of millet and maize from Yendi and was arrested by militia at Plaza, a popular public place in Bolgatanga.

He said when the next morning, saw them selling the items at Plaza to the public at "control price"

The witness said his friend provided him with 3.8 million cedis to transact the business and when the incident happened and he could no longer do the business, his friend took him to court and he had to sell his five-room house for 700,000 cedis to defray part of the debt.

Mr Atanga Ayemleme, a native of Bongo Namoo, in the Upper East Region, said he was dealing in livestock and used to commute between Bolgatanga and Kumasi and on one of his trips in 1978, soldiers intercepted the truck that was conveying his 153 animals.

He said the soldiers threatened to kill him but he managed to escape through a bush path to Bolgatanga and reported the incident to the GPRTU officials but nothing came out of it.

Naaba Ayamdo Abane, a sub-chief in Bongo also in the Upper East Region, told the Commission about how his mother was molested by soldiers at the Bongo market in 1979.

He said two civilians led the soldiers to the mother's shed where she used to sell cola nuts and "fura," a local drink made of millet.

He said the soldiers accused his mother of selling the cola nuts above the controlled price and subjected her to severe beatings.

The witness said he sent his mother to the house where she received local treatment and was later sent to the hospital but she died.

Zenabubilla Saaka, a trader at Walewale in the West Mamprusi District said in 1979, six soldiers came to her house early in the morning and ordered her to come out, accusing her of engaging in "Kalabule".

When she retorted that she wasn't that type of woman, she received a hot slap from one of the soldiers and later took her round the town to arrest her colleagues after which they were sent to Walewale police station.

She said they were made to sit on the ground and their heads were shaved and were subjected to severe beatings and were made to roll in the mud.

Their goods were later seized and sold at the controlled prices to the public and the proceeds taken away and the soldiers kept goods that were useful to them.