The much-awaited fireworks at the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) this week continued yesterday with Ex-Corporal Alhassan Adama Akati disclosing that former National Security Advisor Captain Kojo Tsikata, wanted him (witness) to implicate Lt. Col Mussah and four other soldiers in a coup attempt for which he (Akati) had been arrested in 1983.

Speaking under cross-examination by Dr. Yao Obed Asamoah, counsel for Capt. Tsikata, witness said Capt. Tsikata ordered a security guard at the Castle Guardroom to detain him for two weeks without food and water after he (Akati) had disarmed a Commando.

He said while still in detention in the guardroom, a Commando asked one Corporal Ameyaw, who was being held in detention, to step out. He said as soon Ameyaw obliged and stepped out of guardroom, the Commando and other soldiers on guard shot him dead. Akati, who had earlier appeared before the Commission last year, said when he realised that he was also targeted to be killed, he quickly disarmed the Commando in the guardroom which triggered off a commotion that brought Flt. Lieutenant Rawlings and Capt. Tsikata to the scene.

Akati alleged that Capt. Tsikata told him to calm down and asked for the weapon, and he complied. He said Capt. Tsikata then had a chat with Flt. Rawlings and later gave instructions to the security guard who informed him (Akati) that the National Security Advisor had ordered that he (witness) should be detained for two weeks without food and water.

Akati narrated how he survived through the kindness of one of the Commandos who sent him food, which he ate in the toilet. He rejected a suggestion by Dr. Asamoah that Capt. Tsikata ordered him to be detained there to protect him from the Commandos. "He kept me there because he wanted me to implicate Lt. Col. Mussah (now Commander of the Field Engineers Regiment) and others in the Burma Camp", Akati stated.

Akati however admitted that he and other soldiers were planning a coup at the time, but insisted that Col. Mussah and 15 others who he claimed Capt. Tsikata wanted to be implicated were never involved in the plot.