A Kind Of Justice At The Obuasi 'Gold Trials'
The People's court, the centrepiece of Ghana's revolutionary legal system has held a session in Obuasi in the Ashanti region of Ghana, the predominant goldmining region of the country. Our Ghana correspondent sent this despatch on the trial of over two thousand persons arrested during a recent military operation.The military operation lasted about a fortnight. Code-named 'Operation Dragnet' it was mounted to deal with alleged gold dealers and smugglers. Over two thousand people arrested during the swoop were detained as prisoners on the premises of a local college. The Chairman of the Ghana people's court, George Agyekum, LLB, handed out outrageous sentences that would long linger in the memories of the townfolk.
Two men alleged to have stolen quantities of gold and identified as armed robbers were sentenced to death by firing squad. The notable aspect of this trial is that most of the alleged prisoners were arrested on the strength of tip-offs. Anyone whose lifestyle could not apparently be matched by his or her known taxable income was prime suspect. There was a middle-aged couple who could not explain how they had managed to buy a refrigerator ten years ago and could not explain the source of €3,000.00 for their joint income. They got a total of twenty five years in jail.
The Adansi District Council building has been converted into a trial arena, always packed to capacity as early as 7.00 a.m. each day. When George Agyekum walks in surrounded by armed soldiers, the crowd yells in ecstasy and fear. His majesty exudes a cloud of threat and fear. His word is law in a court where one's guilt is as solid as a rock before the trial opens. Defence lawyers are allowed but they are only toothless dogs yapping away only for the records. Nothing they say or prove tend to be of value to their scores of clients. An eighty year old woman collapsed out of fear and shock while being questioned about her grandson's suspicious income of £10,000, which according to the defence, had been acquired through a bequeathed legacy. The old woman could not survive to see her twenty six year old grandson get a thirty year sentence.
But the most surprising sentence has been that pronounced on ex-warrant Officer Class I, A. Sowah who was caught in Kumasi with over 200 ounces of gold. About 18 months ago, Sowah, then a serving officer of the Ghana Armed Forces led a similar operation in Obuasi to stamp out gold dealing. His was swift and brutal. At the end of his operation, nearly thirty people had been shot dead by soldiers on his instructions. For that 'noble deed', he was promoted from W.O.II to W.O.I. Then out of the blue he resigned from the force and was never heard of in public until this repeat military operation was mounted. Following the usual tip-off that ex-W.O.I Sowah had turned a 'King' of Kumasi gold dealers, he was arrested after large hoards of gold beads and bars had been lifted out of a magnificent mansion he owned in Kumasi.
The news of his arrest turned Obuasi folk wild with frenzy. People who remembered his hey-days of brutalities were eager to see 'a tooth for a tooth'. 'Why, ordinary folk with no more than 4,000 cedis are in jail for up to twenty years. Sowah deserves a life sentence.
Expectations were high. The courtroom was overflowing with people bent on vengeance. Such was the animosity against Sowah that he was escorted into the court by a brigade of armed police.
George Agyekum sentenced ex-W.O.I Sowah to two years for illegally possessing 200 ounces of fine gold with no fine to pay at all. The silence of the crowd in the courtroom was overpowering.
