Narrow Escape – Episode 14

NARROW ESCAPE

 

Episode Fourteen:

 

Kofi Ansah: Welcome back and thank you for keeping your dial right here and not moving an inch from your device. In the studio with me this evening is Captain Kwame Adjei, former adjutant and commanding officer of the 64th Battalion Infantry who out of self defense, lost the life of the only son of the then chief of defense staff of the Ghana Armed Forces. So before the commercial break I was about to ask how you survived death in the prison. Can you fill us in on that please?

Captain Adjei: Sure my brother, early one morning the operation people came to the cell and started mentioning names of the people on their list for execution that day. I heard the officer mentioning the names of the people whose luck had run out that day and out of the blues I heard him scream the name Adjei. The next thing I heard was an inmate also scream, that man is in cell seven, the guy who was lying next to me tapped me severally thinking I was asleep and when I responded to him, he whispered to me “Captian it seems your time is up ooo!!!”. I looked up and shook my and stood up from my mattress waiting for the prison officers to come for me. The leader of the cell who happened to be in the same room with me came to me and hugged me, he was sad and wondered why my name came up in the execution list so early because I came to meet a whole lot of people who had spent over twenty years in the prison even before I came but our thoughts were like citizens of a country, when the parliamentarians go and pass a law at the parliament house, we the citizens have no option than to follow it. In no time the prison officers got to our cell and asked who Adjei was and I answered I was the one, the door was opened for me to come out from the cell, I turned and told my cell mates that I leave them in the capable hands of God as I depart from the land of the living and never ever to cross path with any of them. I was handcuffed and taken to the chapel together with the other prisoners whose luck had run out just like me and in the next thirty minutes or so, we were taken through the burial service rituals, when the service was done I got to know the bus that will convey us to the shooting range had delayed a bit so we were all matched to the reception to wait for the bus to come in and convey us to the shooting range where we will be given the ticket either to heaven or hell. As I stood for a while, my instincts started talking to me to oppose to the fact that my time was not due to face the firing squad so I called on one of the officers and he asked what my problem was. I told him I am not the person who is suppose to be standing where I am with the handcuffs on my wrist, the officer ignored me for the first time but I kept persisting that there was a mix up somewhere and that my time was not due for any execution that very day. One DSP amongst them heard the noise I was making and came in to ask what the problem was, I told him I was wrongly called to join my fellow inmates who were been conveyed to the sh00t range and he chuckled the first time I explained myself to him. He was about to walk out of the reception to check if the bus had drove into the prison yard when I repeated myself again, he turned himself and walked back to where he came to stand with me the first time and he asked me to repeat myself again. I obliged and told him that something inside me was telling me that, my time was not due to face the firing squad. He shook his head and asked me if I knew my serial number and I told him I knew it very well.

Kofi Ansah: Mmmm please let me cut you short here Captain, did I hear you mention serial number? What was that serial number for?

Captain Adjei: The serial number stood for the number that was given to every prisoner when you are brought to the prison.

Kofi Ansah: Oh you mean cell number?

Captain Adjei: No the word is serial number. It was a unique or special generated number that was given to every inmate as a form of identity.

Kofi Ansah: Oh okay thanks for the clarification on that part. Please kindly go on with your narration.

Captain Adjei: So I told the DSP my serial number and he ordered a subordinate to check through the list in his hand to see if my serial number tallied with what was in their list. Truth to my words, when I mentioned my serial number and he checked, the number was far different from what they had in their list and the person they were after was Kwaku Adjei and not Kwame Adjei.

Kofi Ansah: What was your serial number please?

Captain Adjei: My serial number was 1578/A7.

Kofi Ansah: So what happened after they saw you were not the one the were looking for that day?

Captain Adjei: My brother when the officer checked the list and saw I wasn’t the one, he shook he head and said, sir we have made the wrong choice. He is not the one we are looking for this morning. My brother the relief and joy that came to me that day, as I sit here right now, words alone cannot describe what I felt that very moment. I knew I was going to die but that very day was not the day God had in His plans to welcome my soul to paradise. I did the cross sign on my face, the DSP tapped my shoulder and said to me “jack your instincts has rescued you today”. He ordered for the handcuffs to be taken off my wrist and as that order was been carried out, the bus to convey them drove in. A sack or headgear was worn on each inmate due for execution head and after that, they were lead into the bus. I was sent back to my cell as they also looked for that Adjei whose time was due for execution.

Kofi Ansah: Woooow so that was how come you narrowly escaped death?

Captain Adjei: Yes my brother, my instincts helped me escape death narrowly that day. If I had kept mute and didn’t act upon what my instincts were directing me to say, I would be dead about thirty something years ago.

Kofi Ansah: So what happened after you were sent back to your cell?

Captain Adjei: Everyone in the cell was confused at first when they saw me in the cell again. Some rushed to me and asked the reason why I was brought back and I remember that the only thing I could say to them was “MY TIME TO DIE WAS JUST NOT UP AND I JUST ESCAPED DEATH NARROWLY”. I further told them my story and one elderly man who had been in the cell for more than 55years came to me and said to me that son, “the Lord your worship sleep not nor slumber”. Worship him with all your heart and mind, if you have escaped death narrowly today you can one day walk out from the four walls of this prison a free man. Keep your freedom hope alive, pray without ceasing and keep a clean heart towards your fellow man even if they have wronged you badly. My brother, the surprising thing is that I was told by the cell leader that, the old man had not spoken a word to anyone for the past 40years in that cell. He died through his afternoon nap the same day he spoke those words to me in the cell as I escaped death.

Kofi Ansah: Oooooooh may his soul rest in peace. So what happens to those who die in the prison, are their relatives called over for their dead bodies to be handed over to them or what?

Captain Adjei: What I got to know in there even though I stand to be corrected is that, when you are imprisoned then you become the property of the government so even in your death you still belong to the government. There is a mortuary in the prison so when you passaway and the prison doctors confirm you dead, your corpse is deposited over there and later a mass burial is given to the dead people. I think the families of the deceased are contacted later for the unfortunate news to be conveyed to them but the corpse they will never lay their hands on it.

Kofi Ansah: Hmmmmmm this is indeed sad. I can’t imagine me losing a family member and the government takes custody or possession of the dead body.

Captain Adjei: Well a great man once said “freedom is not for sell but if you make a mistake and your freedom is taken away from you, you will have to pay your way through for justice to be served to you”.

Kofi Ansah: Thoes are powerful words you just coined out from the coat of arms of this country. I will take my last commercial break and when I am back, we will dive into the final phase of this great lesson learning interview, guys please don’t touch your dial, stick and stay as I take this last commercial break from my sponsors. I will be right back.

 

 

To be continued…

 

 

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