The families of the three war veterans who were killed in the 1948 Christianborg Crossroads shooting incident say they have not received any compe
The families of the three war veterans who were killed in the 1948 Christianborg Crossroads shooting incident say they have not received any compensation from the State 74 years after the landmark incident.
Sergeant Adjetey, Corporal Attipoe, and Private Odartey Lamptey were killed during a protest on February 28, 1948, to demand payment of war benefits, which they had been promised by the then colonial government.
Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia on Monday, February 28, 2022, led a wreath-laying ceremony to mark the 74th anniversary of the incident at the Freedom Monument, near the Black Star Square at Osu, in Accra, in memory of the three Ghanaian World War II veterans.
In separate interviews with the Ghana News Agency, the families of the three veterans said the annual commemoration of the incident was not enough.
They proposed the construction of houses for the families, named after the three veterans, with other packages, as compensation to the families for the loss.
Mr David Hammond, Head of Private Odartey Family, said the sacrifice of the three veterans triggered Ghana’s independence victory and that their families deserved to be compensated in appreciation of their sacrifices to the State.
“Every year, they call us to come and sit in the sun and after that nothing happens. It was through these veterans that we had our independence, but after 74 years, nothing has been done for the family,” he said.
He added: “We don’t want anything big from the State. We want an estate house, which would be named after them.”
Mr Prosper Attipoe, a Member of the Attipoe family, said decades after the tragic killing of their family member, the family remained heartbroken.
“We have lost a great leader in the family, thinking that the reason they went to protest, and were killed, their families can be presented something. But up to now we have not been given anything and we don’t know why it is delaying,” he said.
Madam Mary Adjei Okankai, granddaughter of Sergeant Adjetey, said her grandfather was the breadwinner of the family and that his death severely affected the welfare and livelihood of the family.
“He was the first son of the family so his death really worried the family. If he were alive, my parents and other members of the family would have had the opportunity to go to school and our lives would have been better by now,” she said.
She appealed to the Government to listen to the pleas of the family and offer them a befitting compensation.
The three celebrated World War II veterans and their allied forces in the then Gold Coast Regiment of the Royal West African Frontier Force were shot and killed whiles demanding their gratuity after they had returned from the Second World War.
The protest followed several appeals to the colonial government, which yielded no fruitful results.
The veterans then decided to march to the seat of the Christiansborg Castle, Accra, Gold Coast (Ghana), to hand in a petition to the colonial governor, demanding their end of war benefits promised them.
But the peaceful protest turned deadly when they were intercepted at the crossroads — the exact location of the present “Freedom Monument” — by a contingent of armed police officers who shot and killed them.
A British police superintendent, Imray, shot and killed the three veterans.
Imray was said to have killed the veterans after a subordinate he had ordered to do so had failed to execute the order.
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