Owusu is from Cemetery Hill in the parish of St. George's. People in the area would remember Owusu as a highly intelligent and down-to-earth youth. He attended the PBC next door. There he was a leading sports man and activist in the school and community. In the 1973 – 1974 upheavals he was a student leader. He was a founding member of several youth organizations among them JOY (Joint Organization of Youth) and OREL, of which he was the founding leader. He represented the PBC, Dauntless FC, and Grenada at football, all while he was still a student. But Owusu is most remembered as the soft-spoken amiable youth who went house to house, in the city, in the seventies, bringing the message of hope and liberation to our people. Characteristically, upon leaving school, Owusu chose to become a dockworker so that on a day to day basis he could rub shoulders with and share the experiences of the salt of the earth. He served on the executive of the Seaman and Waterfront Workers' Union and was an executive member of the TUC. So it was only natural that Owusu would have become a member of the NJM and from 1975 he was the leading NJM activist in the town of St. George's. During the Revolution, in addition to being an executive member of the NJM, he was the Deputy Minister of National Security, but he remained as down-to-earth as ever, maintaining contact with the people in his area, particularly the youths.

Owusu is in jail because the prosecution claimed that he was one of 10 persons who ordered the death of Maurice Bishop and others. The evidence against Owusu is concocted and even more so ridiculously tenuous. Like all the other members of the Central Committee, Owusu was convicted on the basis of the evidence of one witness. That witness, Cletus St Paul, was the former chief bodyguard of Bishop. He had been arrested on October 12^th 1983, according to him, on the orders of the Central Committee. He therefore clearly had an 'axe to grind' against the Central committee members, and in particular against Owusu and the others involved in national security apparatus who uncovered his role in spreading the politically explosive rumour.

St. Paul's evidence was that he was standing in handcuffs at the entrance of Fort Frederick on October 19^th, 1983 when he saw the members of the Central Committee arrive in a great haste. Upon their arrival, St. Paul said, they grouped together for a brief moment right in front of him. He did not hear what they were saying but he saw them shaking their hands and moving their heads. Shortly after that in the presence of others, St. Paul said that one member of the central committee made a short statement to the soldiers that Bishop and others had taken over the Fort and that they must be liquidated. Whereupon St. Paul said the Central committee members shouted 'Central Committee orders!' and the soldiers responded, 'We obey! We obey!'

At the preliminary inquiry Errol George, who was himself a security officer, gave evidence which clearly contradicted St. Paul. George said that he arrived at Fort Frederick together with Owusu and that Owusu was the last central committee member to arrive. And when they arrived St. Paul was no where around.

The truth is that Owusu was at Fort Frederick for part of the morning of October 19^th, prior to the troops being dispatched to Fort Rupert. However St. Paul did not see him arrive there. More importantly Owusu had nothing to do with troops being sent to Fort Rupert. In fact it is now known that Owusu opposed the sending of the troops to recapture the Fort. He was adamant that the use of force would solve nothing. This has been confirmed by Ewart Layne who at the trial in 1985 and again on TV two months ago, said that he, Layne, ordered the troops to proceed to Fort Rupert. In the recent TV interview Layne revealed publicly for the first time that Owusu had expressed his strong opposition to troops being sent to Fort Rupert.

Yet Owusu was convicted of murder. And he was nearly hanged in July 1991. Indeed Owusu was not on the original list of five for hanging. But someone insisted that he must die. So one person was removed and Owusu took his place. And Owusu, being the man he is, accepted his fate with dignity; not seeking to cast blame or uttering a single word of recrimination.

The issue is why was Owusu singled out for such treatment? The reason is clear. To the occupation forces, Owusu, a born leader and revolutionary, could not be allowed free. He had to be framed. He had to be killed.

They did not succeed in killing him. But despite his innocence they have locked him up for the best years of his life.

Prison life has been harsh on Owusu. In 1993 he lost his mother, with whom he was very close, to cancer. However he has not given up. In 1997 he obtained a BSc in Economics from London University. And he plans to pursue an MBA specializing in marketing. Even while he pursued his own studies he remained active in the Prison Education Programme being the principal tutor in business education at all levels. In this capacity he has assisted several inmates in drawing up plans and in actually starting small businesses on leaving prison. Owusu himself plans to migrate and pursue a career in business whenever he is freed.

People of the Town of St. George's, Owusu is one of us. He is our own. He's innocent. We must take a stand on his behalf. Let us call on our Representative to act on behalf of this innocent brother. We must ensure that he is freed before the end of the millennium.