... For Reburial
THE daughter of the late Major-General Charles Bawa, Ms. Abiba Jamilatu Bawa, has called on the Government to accord the same right of burial to his father, whose remains remain unknown, if the late General A. A. Afrifa, who killed him is to be given "state honours".

The late General Afrifa shot and killed Major-General Bawa, in cold blood in his house, together with his house-boys, cooks and guards in the early hours of February 24, 1966, in the coup which toppled the Nkrumah Government.

Making the call, in an eye-wetting interview, full of sorrow, Ms. Bawa, narrated the incident, as told her by her senior sister. We publish the story, unedited:

"I was three years old at the time of the 1966 coup which overthrew Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and the death of my father, Major-General Bawa.

"You could see that I would not know anything by then, but my senior sister who is now 54-years-old, told me all that happened that day.

At the time the soldiers, led by General Afrifa arrived in the house, my father was then with his girlfriend. She was also one of the people who told me how my father met his untimely death. This woman passed away last year.

According to my sister, on 24th February, the soldiers led by Gen. Afrifa stormed the house and ordered my father to give them some keys but he refused and they left.

"She said they came back and this time with some papers and asked him to sign them. He again refused to sign and they ordered him to come out with all his family, including, the children. We are eight in all, six boys and two girls.

"Some of the soldiers pleaded on our behalf with General Afrifa to leave us (the children) alone. So they allowed us to remain in our rooms, while my father and some members of the household, including house boys, cooks and guards were all marched outside.

"My sister said she peeped through the key hole and saw my father and the others with him lined up and it was General Afrifa himself, who gunned all of them down.

"I think that General Afrifa, who killed my father is a human being just like my father. I believe they were all created by God and if the man, who killed my father is to be given a fitting reburial, what about my father, who also served this country to the best of his ability and was killed in cold blood because he had refused to support General Afrifa and Kotoka?

"I think that it will be really unfair for the Government to even consider that the proposed National Reconciliation Commission should begin its work from 1981.

"What about those of us who have suffered during the 1966 coup?

"Are we not Ghanaians, or are some people more humans than others?

"I don’t think General Afrifa’s children are suffering the way we (Bawa’s children) have suffered all these years. Most of us had to drop out of school and since 1966, our family has never been the same as it used to be when our father was alive.

"I believe a lot of injustice was carried out during the past regimes from 1957 to date and as such I think if this country is to be properly reconciled, then the proposed commission should go back to 1957 and start from there to identify victims of the past regimes and compensate them.

"The Commission would not do this country any good if they should just select some few people who have suffered from 1981 to 1999 and say they have reconciled this country.

"I am appealing to the President, as a father of the nation, to remember every Ghanaian including the children of General Bawa, who one way or the other, have suffered some injustices during the period after Independence

"We would also be interested in knowing where our father was buried because up till today, we don’t know where our father was buried. He served both the Colonial Government and the First Republic to the best of his ability and honestly and did not deserve to be buried like a common criminal.

If today, a section of Ghanaians are saying General Afrifa, who overthrew a democratically elected Government should be given a state burial, then my father who never betrayed this country but served Ghana all his life, also deserves a state burial.

So ended the sad story of Ms. Abiba, as this reporter could hardly hold back her tears.