Retired Major General Kwamina Sam has revealed that the late former President Jerry John Rawlings would not have joined the army if not Air Force Commander’s personal decision.
According to Retired Major General Jerry John Rawlings, at the time failed his examinations and should have been disqualified, but the Air Force Commander took a personal decision to keep him as he was a good pilot.
Retired Major General explained that the commanders saw Rawlings as a nice chap whom they could handle, but it was to their own peril.
Speaking with Kafui Dey in a video shared on Facebook, Retired Major General Kwamina Sam explained, “June 4th, if anybody had told me it was coming, I wouldn’t have believed it. I just finished my service in Kumasi as commander and moved to Accra as Chief of Staff. I was then a Brigadier General”.
According to the former Chief of the Defence Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces, he never met Rawlings at Achimota School, but added that he was aware of him.
“In fact, he always looked crafy to me. It was the Air Force Commander’s personal decision, despite the fact that he wasn’t passing his exams, that he was a good pilot and should be kept. If the rules had been applied, Rawlings wouldn’t have been in the service. They all thought he was a nice chap; they could handle him, to their peril,” he added.
Major General (rtd) Sam also stressed that some top military officers were needlessly and unwarrantably killed when Rawlings took over the country.
He recounted that Amedume’s crime was that he had taken an Armed Forces loan to buy a house, revealing that if that was his crime, he was also guilty.
“When they finished, what was it? Amedume’s crime was that he had taken an Armed Forces loan to buy a house. And I took an Armed Forces loan to buy this house, so I would have been guilty too, if the charge for Amedume was that he had used an Armed Forces loan to buy a house. When I bought this house, it was 34,000 cedis in the 70s.
“…when they looked at Yaw Boakye’s account, he had 4,000 cedis. So why should Yaw Boakye be killed for 4,000 cedis?” he quizzed.
In that same interview, Retired Major General Edwin Kwamina Sam recounted his experience in the condemned cells of Nsawam prison after the June 4th Uprising.
History tells us that the 1979 uprising was a dramatic turning point in Ghana’s political and military history, with late Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings staging a coup to overthrow the then-President Dr Hilla Limann’s government.
The June 4th Uprising caused significant mayhem within the military, resulting in the detention of several officers, both high-ranking and junior, by the Rawlings regime.
Retired Major General Edwin Kwamina Sam was one of the officers detained during this period.
He recounted the harsh conditions he and other military personnel endured in the aftermath of the uprising.
According to him, he spent two days at the Nsawam prison where they were served Gari, kako and raw pepper.
Speaking in an interview with Kafui Dey, Major General Kwamina Sam (Rtd) remembered the cruel treatment that prisoners were subjected to during their confinement.
He stated, “I stayed in Nsawam for two days. This was a condemned cell in Nsawam. There were two bunk beds, with one sleeping on top of the other. Four of us were placed in a room together with our thunderbox [latrine]. We arrived around 5 or 6 PM, and they said the food had already been served. What they gave us was Gari and Kako [salted fish and raw pepper].”
“Unfortunately, the next morning, the warden came in and asked who caused the mess. They then asked the personnel to clean up the mess themselves. It was a humiliating experience,” Major General Sam recounted.
He further added that the next day the meal served at the time was “koko” [porridge] without sugar, accompanied by five days bread.
“It was so hard that we had to put salt in it just to make it edible,” he said.
He further narrated, “The prison stores had been closed, so those who arrived earlier received mattresses for the beds. However, those who came later, including Major General Sam, were forced to sleep on hard springs without any mattress”.
“Can you imagine lying on a spring bed? It was uncomfortable, but I slept like a baby because it didn’t even feel like I was on it without a mattress,” he said.
He further detailed that for Nsawam, anything one wants if they had money, they could get anything they wanted.
“If you wanted Black Label whisky or corned beef, you could get it,” he added.
Watch the video below: