Ghana’s final surviving World Struggle II veteran, Ex-Warrant Officer Class I Joseph Ashitey Hammond, has pledged to pursue compensation from the federal government to help the households of the three troopers (former servicemen) who had been shot on the Christiansborg Fort intersection in Accra.
He argued that it was unjust that, after 80 years, the veterans who sacrificed their lives for Ghana had not acquired any compensation for his or her households.
Talking at a press convention on Saturday in Accra to mark his a hundredth birthday, Ex-WO1 Joseph Ashitey Hammond, mentioned he would exhaust all of the processes to demand compensation for the households of the three troopers who boldly sacrificed their lives for the betterment of this nation.
They’re Sergeant Nii Adjetey, Corporal Patrick Attipoe, and Personal Odartey Lamptey.
The centenarian veteran recalled the occasions of June 1945, when he and his colleagues, returned from World Struggle II and had been met with disappointment and disillusionment.
”I got here again from World Struggle II in 1946, solely to search out myself discharged with out receiving the compensation and employment alternatives that had been promised by the British government. We had been left to fend for ourselves, and tragically, a few of my comrades perished on the streets. Feeling a way of betrayal, we resolved to take motion and organised a march to the fort to ship our petition to the federal government,” he said.
Ex-WOI Hammond mentioned the British authorities reneged on its promise to create jobs for them in addition to compensate them.
“We had been left to our destiny and to fend for ourselves after sacrificing for the British Government,” he mentioned.
That, Ex-WOI Hammond, mentioned led to a collection of protests and demonstrations, which eventually escalated into violence.
The veteran described the chaos and bloodshed that ensued, together with the killing of a number of troopers and civilians because the 1948 Riots.
Ex- WO1 mentioned he had written a e book titled “Joseph Ashitey Hammond” which chronicles his experiences and private account of Ghana’s turbulent previous, providing a singular perspective on the nation’s battle for independence.
In keeping with him, he was solely 16 when he set out from Ghana’s shores to battle in a warfare that modified the course of historical past.
“Taking part within the Burma Marketing campaign within the British colony of Burma, I witnessed the brutality of fight, the lack of buddies, and the heavy toll the warfare took on humanity,” he said.
WOI Hammond mentioned “This yr, at 100 years previous, I’m the only real remaining voice of my era in Ghana, a dwelling reminiscence of World Struggle II.”
BY RAYMOND
APPIAH-AMPONSAH
