Alfred Adams Takoradi
29 October 2008
Officers from the Airforce Base in Takoradi have been accused of stripping a 70 year old woman and her pregnant friend naked, and forcing several others to remove their shirts, because they were wearing National Democratic Congress (NDC) party T-shirts, and using the barracks to Adakope, a suburb of Takoradi, as a thoroughfare.
The people of Adakope have no access route to the village, except through the barracks.
For this inhuman treatment, the Assembly Member for the Adakope-Airforce Electoral Area, Mr. Ernest Sodzinshie, told The Chronicle that he was dragging the Military Command to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).
Information has it that some of the military personnel, subjected residents of the above-mentioned town to inhuman treatment at the front gate of the military barracks.
The residents, who were allegedly manhandled by the soldiers, were said to be NDC supporters who were returning from an NDC rally, and dressed in their party T-shirts. This was on the 18th of this month.
The military officers allegedly instructed the party supporters to strip off their party T-shirts, before they would be allowed passage through the camp to their destination.
According to reports, since the residents have no other route, apart from using the military base, they had no option than to comply with the military instructions.
A 70-year-old woman and a pregnant woman, who were wearing nothing under their party T-shirts, had to walk home bare-chested, exposing their breasts to the public.
The victims, who were meted this unfair and inhuman treatment, spoke in an interview with Kyzz FM, a local radio station, and their voices were played on air to the hearing of listeners.
But, speaking in an interview with The Chronicle, the Assembly Member, who followed it up to the office of this paper, told this reporter that he could not believe the story, when information first got to him about the inhuman treatment meted by the military to the supporters.
As a result, he himself went out to speak to the residents, and ten women, who were victims to the unfortunate incident, confirmed the story to him.
The pregnant woman and the 70-year-old woman, who had their breasts forcibly exposed in public, also confirmed the story to him.
For that reason, he lodged a complaint to the Officer Commanding the Airforce Base, but for two weeks now, he had not received any reply.
He has therefore decided to lead the women to the offices of CHRAJ, to lodge an official complaint against the behaviour of the military personnel.
The military did not deny the story when this reporter contacted them.
According to them, it was against their rules for anyone to wear party T-shirts and enter the barracks, which the people of Adakope were aware of. The Assembly Member however denied the claim by the military, saying on October 9th this year, he personally saw some NPP supporters in their party colours, buying drinks at the Military Mess, after a rally at Adakope.
He contended that the military had not communicated to them that the use of party colours in the military yard was prohibited.
"If that is the case, why did the military not stop the NDC supporters from using the route when they were going to the rally grounds," he asked.
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