A Vignette From The Past By Cameron Duodu

I was greatly interested to read the following article, entitled "From Effah Dartey To Col Crabbe" in the Daily Graphic:

http://www.graphic.com.gh/dailygraphic/page.php?news=16870#cmts

The part that grabbed me most was this:
"....No problem. Madam, we will go to Burma Camp by taxi. Let's go.

We walked briskly from the Supreme Court building to the High Street, hired a taxi and told the driver – Burma Camp.

I have this interesting driver who always tells me Captain, the problems of Hohoe are different from the problems of Sefwi Wiawso – imagine how desperate and anxious I was in wanting to get to Burma Camp and sitting in a taxi whose driver was more than a chatterbox – “Honourable – why are you going for Court martial?”

"No – funeral service – driver hurry up!!...
"Lt Col S K Crabbe – he was one of my instructors at the Ghana Military Academy – intake 20, and how can, I ever forget Col Crabbe – he was then a Captain – young, fair coloured, handsome, almost angelic in appearance, always very neatly dressed, his shoes shining more than a mirror – for me, he looked the very epitome of the military officer corps. What is more, he was from the Airborne Force, the green berets, who, according to legend always jumped with the parachute on every payday!!!!

"Colonel Crabbe – I remember those days in 1981 when President Limann's dreaded military intelligence way laid me and hauled me before the prisons sitting General Court martial – my former GMA instructor Col Crabbe agreed to be my Defense Officer, to always be by my side at every sitting, until the very last day. Oh! Colonel Crabbe, rest in peace."...

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COMMENT BY CAMERON DUODU
Captain Effah Dartey,
I enjoyed your piece! My condolences to the family and friends of of Col. Crabbe on his sad passing.

Now, listen, Captain -- you do not know this but you owe me a drink. For when you were arrested in 1981, I reported it on the BBC. I had very little to go on, because the Government announcement of your arrest was opaque to the point of being incomprehensible.

So I commented that the omens for democracy in Ghana were not good if an "unnamed Ghanaian citizen could be arrested and tried at an unknown location by unnamed people for an unspecified crime!".

After my dispatch was broadcast on the BBC, the Special Branch came to my house. They politely invited me to go and see their Director at his office, in the area of the Border Guard hq. I'd never been there before.

It wasn't the sort of "invitation" that one could refuse to accept.

So I went.
The Director told me politely that the Government was not pleased with my report.

I replied: "Then the Government should stop doing things that will make me send reports that do not please it."

He looked at me.
I looked at him.
He said I could go.
I got up.
I think he was uncomfortable with the task he'd been asked to perform. But, of course, his face was like a mask -- it gave nothing away.

As I got up to leave, my professional instinct took over. I asked him: "By the way, what is the name of the chap who has been arrested?"

He said :"I think it is Captain Effah-LARTEY".("You think?" I said in my head.)

Then, I left.
Later on, when I got to know your correct name, Captain Effah DARTEY, I laughed to myself.

I wondered: "If the Director of the Special Branch does not know the correct name of an arrested person, then what sort of security service is being run in this country?"

We found out on 31 December 1981.
Captain, my message is: In your profession as a lawyer, do defend the truth at all times. For some people, whom you don't even know, tried to do just that -- for you and for Ghana.

www.cameronduodu.com

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