Victims of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) brutalities in Koforidua have called on the Eastern Regional Minister, Dr. Francis Osafo-Mensah, to remove the statue of the former president, Jerry John Rawlings, from the regional administration yard.
According to them, the statue sends them on the memory lane of the inhuman treatment they suffered at the hands of AFRC and PNDC soldiers. ”Anytime we set our eyes on it, nothing but sorrow and grief fill our hearts, so we believe if it is removed, it will assuage our pains,” they held.
The victims channeled their grievances through ”Chronicle” at Koforidua. One of the victims, Kofi Boateng, narrated the ordeal he went through for no reason. ”We were made to roll on the ground, covering about four miles, leapfrogging and many more,” he said.
When this reporter visited the site, the statue was still standing right in front of the old club house, near the main regional coordinating council (RCC) entrance.
A Chronicle source at the RCC hinted that the clubhouse was taken over by the 31st December Women’s Movement (31st DWM) in the heat of the revolution as an office.
A canteen for workers of the regional administration was also turned into a military base for the (AFRC/PNDC) soldiers, who meted out inhuman treatment to the citizens they hauled there.
Reacting to the victim’s call when Chronicle contacted him, the regional minister assured that the RCC would trace the history behind it and take the appropriate action on it.
He said the RCC is currently renovating the clubhouse to serve as a military base so that the canteen also operates as such.
Source: GhanaWeb
