Woman tells Commission about disappearance of husband

Tamale, May 19, GNA- Madam Cecilia Mariama Iddisah, a Nurse at the Tamale Teaching Hospital on Wednesday told the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) the story of her husband's disappearance at Bolgatanga in 1986.

Madam Iddisah said her husband; Mr Victor Kapambu Iddisah, a former Assistant Area Manager at the National Investment Bank (NIB) in Bolgatanga, was last seen in the office on September 15, 1986 and since then his whereabouts had not been known to anybody.


Testifying before the NRC, she said she was at work one day when the Area Manager of the Tamale Branch of the NIB came to the hospital on October 1, 1986 and told her that her husband had disappeared from Bolgatanga.


She said the Manager had come to her to enquire about her husband's whereabouts.


Madam Iddisah said when she closed from work, she went to the Tamale Area Manager's house to find out whether he had heard anything about her husband but he replied in the negative.


She said at that time, she became confused but her friends advised her to see a lawyer for legal assistance, which she did.


She said her lawyer advised her to report the matter to the police and so she did and the Tamale Police took her statement but later transferred it to the Bolgatanga Police.

Witness said she was invited to Bolgatanga where the Police interrogated her and asked her to go home while they investigated the matter.


From the Bolgatanga Police Station, she said, she went to the NIB where she met the Area Manager, Mr John James Anim who took her to her husband's office and showed her a bag and some belongings of her husband. The Manager also showed her a letter allegedly written by her husbands applying for casual leave.


Madam Iddisah said when she visited the husband's residence at the Bolgatanga Catering Rest House; all his belongings in the room had been taken away.


Asked whether her husband had ever told her anything between him and the staff of the Bank, she replied that not long before her husband disappearance, she was with him at his office when one Bortey, then Commercial Manager of the Bank, came in and handed over a parcel in an envelope to him and said it was his share of a deal that they hatched out with a client.


Madam Iddisah said her husband refused to take the parcel and asked that it be returned to Mr Anim.


She said there was a rumour going round in Bolgatanga that her husband's disappearance followed a misunderstanding between him, the Area Manager and the Commercial Manager at that time. She could however not tell the Commission what the misunderstanding was.

She said nobody told her anything about the outcome of the police investigation. "My Lord, I am not aware whether my husband is dead or he is still alive", Madam Iddisah told the Commission.


Witness said she later heard that Mr Anim, Mr Bortey and his girlfriend had been arrested for their involvement in a 25 million-cedis deal but they were later released.


Asked whether her husband was involved in politics, Madam Iddisah said during Dr Limann's regime he was a supporter of the Peoples National Party (PNP) but when Dr Limann was overthrown he stopped politics.


Asked how the disappearance of her husband had affected her, she said she had been physically and mentally tortured and had been commuting between Accra and Nalerigu in the East Mamprusi District of the Northern Region to seek specialist attention.


Bishop Charles Palmer-Buckle, a member of the Commission advised her three sons to take good care of their mother adding that they should also help in the effort to find their father.