The Akata-Pore Interview
Mrs Dorothy Grenfield-Williams of the Network Africa programme of the BBC External Service had the first interview with the recently exiled Sgt. Akata-Pore a fortnight ago.Until his arrest in late November 1982, Sgt. Akata-Pore was seen as the most powerful person in Flt.-Lt. Rawlings' PNDC government, many people believed he challenged even Rawlings in popularity within the ranks of the Ghana Armed Forces. Below we publish the text of his interview with Network Africa.
MY NEXT GUEST in the studio is a distinguished Ghanaian exile. I didn't even know he was here in London until yesterday. Until last week, I actually believed him still to be in prison in London. He is Sgt. Alolga Akata-Pore and he was, I believe, an important influence in the early days of the Rawlings PNDC government and then ... and then what happened Sergeant Akata-Pore?
AKATA-PORE: Well, it came to a certain stage when Rawlings and Kodjo Tsikata were taking decisions behind the PNDC or, at least, that is what it looked like that is what I saw, and I started complaining about these things.
NETWORK AFRICA: What exactly was your position?
AKATA-PORE: I was secretary to the Armed Forces Defence Committee.
NETWORK AFRICA: That means you were running the Defence Committees in the Armed Forces. That was an important job, wasn't it?
AKATA-PORE: A very important job, it was one of the principal reasons why the 31st December Revolution actually took place, to have this idea of having people in the lower group also taking part in decisions.
NETWORK AFRICA: Well, you see I've talked to government people about the split that happened in the PNDC hierarchy between you and the other members and they told me: "there was a sense in which Sgt. Akata Pore was building an alternative power structure in Ghana, an alternative to the PNDC, which was beginning to threaten the PNDC - what do you have to say to that?
AKATA-PORE: This is a lie. One did not take part in the activities that brought about the PNDC into being just because of the question of power, I was never interested in power at all.
NETWORK AFRICA: You were interested, however, in developing a structure of peoples defence committees whether they were people's defence committees or workers defence committees all over the country. You were a moving spirit in all that, weren't you? and in the early days, there were lots of Ghanaians who were very worried about the power that those committees were getting and found them very threatening. Is it not the case that Rawlings and perhaps some of his friends also found it very threatening?
AKATA-PORE: If Rawlings and his group of people now in power found those committees threatening, then it means they were acting against the interest of the people, because these committees actually represented the people, and this is exactly what has taken place now.
NETWORK AFRICA: What has?
AKATA-PORE: He has betrayed these very committees, these very people, the committees which represent the people, he has betrayed them. They are now the subject of his attack in the country at the moment. NETWORK AFRICA: I can see, talking to you, how disagreements between you and Rawlings rose. How did the thing come to a head?
AKATA-PORE: You are talking about how I got arrested?
NETWORK AFRICA: Yes.
AKATA-PORE: Around September 1982, Rawlings and a team from the IMF and Abbey (Dr Joe Abbey, Rawlings' economic guru and currently High Commissioner to Canada) Kwesi Botchway (Secretary for Finance & Economic Planning) used to have secret meetings. There are certain conditions that a sovereign country should not have an international body impose upon her, and these were the very conditions that Rawlings and Abbey and Kwesi Botchway came out with from the IMF meetings and these were the things that we were against.
NETWORK AFRICA: What happened about these disagreements, in the end you were arrested. Why were you arrested?
AKATA-PORE: I was arrested simply because I had to leave the scene for Rawlings to do what he wanted to do.
NETWORK AFRICA: Remind me, did the government ever make it clear what reason they were giving publicly for your arrest?
AKATA-PORE: They said I was inciting troops to mutiny in the army.
NETWORK AFRICA: Okay, you were arrested, you were held in jail until the beginning of this year now, I never heard that you had been released from jail at the beginning of this year. What actually happened?
AKATA-PORE: Now, I still believe that Rawlings and Tsikata believe that I am better dead, therefore when they took me away from Accra on 30th January 1984, they went and left me in my home town and told me that I could go to my house any time that I wanted.
NETWORK AFRICA: The actual place you were living in was quite near your home town...
AKATA-PORE: About 2 miles from my house and they told me I should report daily to the police station. What it means is that if some soldier or some policeman sees me, he knows that I am somebody who has escaped from prison, because it hasn't been announced.
NETWORK AFRICA: But surely it will be a bit difficult to shoot you in your own hometown surrounded by friends.
AKATA-PORE: Well, that is true, but if somebody does it, the person cannot be questioned on why he did it because he has done a good job.
NETWORK AFRICA: Okay, Sgt Akata Pore, you say you were there in your hometown and you were actually frightened of being killed. Does that happen in the Ghana of today, do people just get shot down illegally?
AKATA-PORE: Now, what they do is, they wait for an opportunity and then they use it. For example, it is true that on the 19th of June there was an attempt to overthrow Flt.-Lt. Rawlings so he used that opportunity to kill many people, just shoot them down! For example, Sgt Awah, a very good friend of mine was arrested at the border and brought down to Accra and shot on a stretcher, you will not believe it... shot through the ears.
NETWORK AFRICA: Does the government know you are here?
AKATA-PORE: Now, they will know, if they are not aware, but I'm sure immediately I left, they got to know
NETWORK AFRICA: Did you make your getaway from your hometown surreptitiously, secretly?
AKATA-PORE: Yes, very secretly.
NETWORK AFRICA: Do you see yourself as still having a role in Ghanaian politics?
AKATA-PORE: It will be criminal on my part to forget about the people of Ghana, I cannot, can never forget about the people of Ghana.
