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Ghana: Police Brutality On Innocent Citizens
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Ghanaian Chronicle (Accra)
5 September 2007
Posted to the web 5 September 2007
Charles Takyi-Boadu
The Police Intelligence and Professional Standards Bureau (PIPS) of the Ghana Police Service are not forthcoming with information on the outcome of investigations into the assault of an innocent citizen by some officers at the Labadi Police Station.
Six months down the line, the Bureau has not been able to come out with any report, while the victim, Eric Dartey has been left to his fate. Though the officers involved in the case have since been identified, the 36-year old victim says nothing is being done about the case.
When the Paper contacted the Director of the Bureau, who refused to disclose his name, he said investigations were still going on.
He also refused to give the names of the officers involved in the case.
It all happened on the night of March 12, 2007, when Eric went to the Labadi Police Station in the company of his wife at the request of some officers.
They had been invited to the Station by some officers to sign a document purported to have come from the Rent Control office.
This was as a result of a complaint that was lodged with the Police by one Sammy, a co-tenant of the victim.
Narrating his ordeal to the Paper, he noted that upon reaching the Station between 8:00pm-8:30pm, he and his wife were asked to go behind the counter where he was ordered to sign the said document.
In the process of appending his signature to the document, Eric narrated that two men at the Station, whom he later identified as Police Officers, begun to heckle him.
He then demanded a reason for their action.
This seemed to have provoked the officers who launched a verbal assault on him.
In order not to incur the wrath of the policemen as they were bent on putting him behind bars, Eric said he signed the document.
The complainant then sought to know the identities of the two men from the policeman on duty. The duty policeman had earlier called at his residence.
Before he could even descend the staircase, Eric told the Paper that one of the two policemen in mufti confronted him without the slightest provocation and said, "you are too known".
Out of the blue, he said the other policeman who was also in mufti slapped him from behind.
Unable to contain the beatings, he told the Paper that he run back to the Charge Office where they followed him to subject him to severe beatings.
Thinking that the Officer on duty would come to his rescue or call his colleagues to order, he noted that he rather looked on unconcerned while the beatings continued.
Later when they left him, Eric asked the names of his assailants from the Officer on duty but he did not disclose them.
He then chose the option of lodging a complaint against them but the Officer again failed to take his statement.
Not even Eric's request for a medical form to seek medical attention was complied with. According to him, the Officer on duty declined to give him the form.
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Left without any option, he went to the Cantonments Police Station where he was made to write his statement and later issued with a medical form to attend hospital.
Though Eric could not pick the names of his assailants, he did manage to pick the service number of the Officer on duty, which he has since made available to the Police Intelligence and Professional Standards Bureau (PIPS).
Six months down the line Eric is yet to hear from the Police.
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| Copyright © 2007 Ghanaian Chronicle. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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