Ouagadougou, The soldier of the rank Nabonswendé Ouédraogo and the sergeant Bossobé Traoré, all retired, denied Tuesday before the court in Ouagadougou, the offenses brought against them during the assassination of Captain Thomas Sankara .
It was Private Nabonswendé who was first called to the bar. He said he did not understand what was happening on October 15 when he was at guard post 520 (close security of the president) in the Council.
He made it clear that Warrant Officer Yacinthe Kafando arrived around 3 p.m. with several other soldiers and was almost an hour long before leaving.
“It was after his departure that immediately there was heavy shooting. I secured myself by hiding in some sort of pool and stayed there until the next day at 9am. It was after we left for Blaise Compaoré that Yacinthe Kafando informed us of the death of President Thomas Sankara, ”said the accused Ouédraogo.
After questions from the military prosecutor’s office to find out whether Mr. Ouédraogo was aware of a preparatory meeting for the plot against President Sankara. He replied in the negative. Even the prosecutor said she was “more lost after the statements of Mr. Ouédraogo because there are many contradictions. He denies things he said. His statements are completely and diametrically opposed ”.
Ouédraogo’s counsel has stepped up to the plate to explain that his client did not plot against the power of Thomas Sankara and that he is in no way involved in the offenses of “complicity in an attack on the security of the State and assassination ”. He asked his client if he had any privilege after the coup. He also replied in the negative.
Ouédraogo’s lawyer also maintained that Yacinthe Kafando was not “a child at heart. It was a perfect commando. He therefore did not need several men to carry out this coup d’etat. You cannot condemn someone on the basis of minutes ”.
He regrets the fact that after the president of the transition Michel Kafando authorized the reopening of the Thomas Sankara case, Yacinthe Kafando was allowed to escape.
Traoré Bossobé, the accused “waké” or the lucky one?
At the bar, the accused Traoré said he was not involved in this coup d’état which cost Thomas Sankara his life. He explains that on October 15 he stood guard as usual.
“A car arrived with hooded people. They asked them to raise their hands. They did so and all fell ”.
“It was Autis with a shotgun who started firing. He killed two of my comrades who were lying next to me. In my turn he shot and missed me first. As I had my arms outstretched, his second shot injured my elbow. I got up and ran away and managed to escape. It was towards CAMEG that I fell because I had lost a lot of blood. Students helped me and put me in a lady’s car to go to the hospital for treatment, ”says Traoré.
He said he did not understand the charges then brought against him. Master Farama, one of the lawyers of the Sankara family raised his voice by mentioning to the accused that “of two things, one: either you are waké, or you are lucky because the shooter is not not awkward. We cannot understand that someone is lying down and that a shooter kills a first comrade, then a second and it is when you are shot that you start to run. And then it is you that we were trying to kill who is transferred for treatment ”.
Maître Maria Kamyili, Traoré’s lawyer, said he was reserved. “For the moment my client is at the bar and I have not spoken. Tomorrow I will say what I think about what he is accused of. But what I retain according to the civil party, his only fault is to have survived ”.
For Maître Ferdinand, one of the lawyers for the civil party, “no one can have the same version as Elisée Yamba Ilboudo, (one of the accused: editor’s note). For the moment no witnesses. In the case, we have witnesses who affirm completely the opposite of what they say ”.
The trial will therefore continue tomorrow, November 3, with Bossobé Traoré still at the helm.
Source: Burkina Information Agency