1979 EXECUTION: “I was in the next group to be shot” — Rabito founder reveals

For years, he kept the story to himself. Now, Prof. Edmund Delle, founder of Rabito Clinic, has opened up about a terrifying chapter of his life. One in which he says he was arrested and feared he would be executed during Ghana’s turbulent military era.

Asked by broadcaster Kafui Dey how he felt about the execution of General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, Ghana’s Head of State from 1972 to 1978, Prof. Delle revealed that his own experience with the authorities was a story he had long kept confidential.

“No, this thing I’ve tried to keep it confidential. You know that I was also picked up,” he disclosed.

He then made a chilling revelation about how close he believed he had come to death.

“I was picked up after those people. I was in the next group to be shot,” he said.

For the renowned skin specialist, the ordeal was linked to what he described as a betrayal by someone who knew him personally.

“Somebody went and betrayed me, and I knew the man, but I couldn’t say anything,” Prof. Delle recounted.

THE SWISS ACCOUNT

The story, according to Prof. Delle, began with a trip to Switzerland, where he opened a bank account with $1,000.

He alleged that someone who knew about the account subsequently manipulated the information, making it appear as though he had far more money than the amount he had deposited.

“When I went to Switzerland, I opened a bank account of $1,000,” he recalled.

He explained that the person involved was someone with whom he had shared accommodation.

“And the person with whom I slept knows,” he said, describing how the individual knew about the account.

According to Prof. Delle, the original amount was then made to look considerably larger.

“Instead of one thousand, he added a lot of things there so that it would look like you have lots of money,” he said.

The alleged deception, he suggested, became a means of drawing suspicion towards him.

WHEN HIS FRIEND WAS PICKED UP

Prof. Delle’s ordeal was not limited to his own arrest. He said an architect friend who had helped him with the arrangements was also detained.

“My friend, the architect who did all this for me, he was also picked up,” he said.

The two men found themselves caught up in the same situation.

“So the two of us were there,” he recounted.

As the situation unfolded, Prof. Delle said people were frantically trying to establish his whereabouts.

“Everybody was running around to know where I am,” he said.

He also referred to a person named Peter in describing how information emerged during the episode, although the available excerpt does not make the sequence entirely clear.

The uncertainty surrounding his whereabouts adds another layer to his account of the experience. People were looking for him, he said, while he was caught up in an ordeal that he believed could end in execution.

Yet his story did not end there. A subsequent encounter with a military officer would bring an unexpected intervention.

THE COLONEL WHO STEPPED IN

In what appears to have been a critical moment, Prof. Delle recalled that a colonel involved in the matter recognized him as a former patient of Rabito Clinic.

The officer, he said, knew him through the medical treatment he had provided and was familiar with his efforts to establish his practice.

Prof. Delle described how the colonel reacted when he encountered the people handling the matter.

“He just rushed to the people and said, ‘You people, are you mad? Don’t you know what this man is doing?’” he recalled.

The officer reportedly went on to defend the young medical practitioner.

“He’s a young man. He’s come, started his own practice. So, where from all this?” Prof. Delle recounted the colonel as asking.

That intervention, Prof. Delle suggests, proved crucial. The colonel’s recognition of him and his work at Rabito Clinic helped change the course of an ordeal he believed could have cost him his life