21-year-old boy case: Pressure mounts on IGP to act

Pressure is mounting on the Inspector General of Police (IGP), David Asante-Apeatu, to take up the case of a 21-year-old man shot by the Police in Kwabenyan and abandoned by the service.

The Police who were on a hunt for some suspected robbers following the gang attack on the Kwabenya Police station accidentally shot Jonathan Odai Laryea who had been sent on an errand.

Six weeks after the incident, Laryea still has three bullets in his thigh as the Police administration has refused to agree to foot the bill for a surgery at the Police hospital after they initially took him there for treatment.

Dejected and looking frail as a result of the pain in his thigh, he told Starr News’ Regina Borley Bortey, Thursday that: “After the guys shot me in the leg, I told them to kill me because I don’t know what to do. So I was put in a car and by the time I realized I was at the Police Hospital.”

Outraged by the failure of the Service to cater for the victim, a Human Rights group, Amnesty International said it was going to investigate the matter and ensure that the victim gets the needed support.

“…It is a heartbreaking…truly heartbreaking issue,” said Robert Akoto-Amoafo, the Country Director of Amnesty International in a Starr News interview.

He continued: “I think that what we [Amnesty International] would continue to do is to one, call the people [shooters] who have done the wrong to book. And also follow up and find out where the man [victim] is and take more details [because] we don’t have the full details and follow up and ensure that wherever there is supposed to be a compensation and medical attention is done accordingly.”

On his part, the Director of Research and Academic Affairs at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Dr. Kwesi Aning warned that the attitude of the police on the matter could adversely affect relationship with the public.

“The more disturbing part relates to community relations, particularly in an era and a period where we want closer and better partnership in terms of intelligence sharing,” he told Francis Abban on the Morning Starr, Friday, March 16, 2018.

He said the story of the 21-year-old must be in the interest of the hierarchy of the service, “particularly as they themselves recognized that this was an operational mistake that has led to these quite debilitating injuries.”

“So, it is quite appropriate that this is resolved as quickly as possible so that this young man [victim] can have the operation that he needs,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Duffuor Foundation has come to the rescue of the 21-year-old man by footing the entire bill to ensure that he successfully gets the bullets lodged in his thigh removed.

Nana Efua Prempeh, Development Coordinator at the Duffuor Foundation told Starr News that the foundation is putting in place measures to ensure that Laryea undergoes surgery as soon as possible.

“I’m at the police hospital with the boy and his parents and we are waiting for the doctor…we really want to have the surgery done right now…then we can sit down with the police and ask why.”