Zam R. Samin
24 July 2008
Tarkoradi — A 69 year old white man, claiming to be a Dutch national, Mr. Jan Kemerink, has been arrested by the Kwesimintsim Police in Takoradi, for allegedly assaulting a 67 year old trader, Madam Elizabeth Peters.
He was arrested following a complaint lodged by the trader with the police.
ASP Boakye Ansah, District Crime Officer, confirmed the arrest of the man, in an interview with The Chronicle. According to the Crime Officer, on the 15th of this month, at about 3:30 pm, the complainant, Madam Elizabeth Peters, sent sugarcane to a junction near the Agyiba International School at Airport Ridge to sell.
While there doing brisk business, the white man, who was driving his BMW car, pulled up and warned her to vacate the spot. The complainant disobeyed the instruction, which infuriated the accused, so on his return from the school, where he had gone to pick his children, he opened one of the front doors of his car with the intention to knock the woman down.
When the complainant asked the accused whether he wanted to kill her, Kemerink would not respond, but picked a bar from his car, and started hitting the poor woman with it. The complainant's cry for help caught the attention of the people living nearby, who rushed to rescue her from the accused.
The complainant subsequently made a report to the police, who arrested the suspect. ASP Ansah said Kemerink, who had earlier claimed that he was a Dutch, later changed his nationality to that of Irish.
Ansah further told The Chronicle that the suspect, in his caution statement to the police, explained that the PTA members of the Agyiba International School, of which he is a member, had resolved to ban the sale of sugarcane around the premises of the school, because of some health problems it had caused some of the pupils.
Mr. Kemerink told the police that Madam Peters, who was into the sugar cane business, failed to understand the decision of the school.
He claimed that, she (Madam, Elizabeth) did not also heed their advice to stop selling the sugarcane to the pupils. The suspect further told the police, that though the woman had vacated the premises of the school after the PTA had warned her, the junction where she was marketing the sugarcane was still close to the school premises, which to him, could attract the attention of the pupils in the school.
The Crime Officer said the accused should have appeared in court long ago, but that had not been possible, due to the absence of prosecutors.
Meanwhile, several attempts by this reporter, to get in touch with the accused and the complainant, in the case failed.
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