6 suspects remanded over Anomabo Police Station riot

Six persons arrested during last Tuesday’s clash between the police and some residents of Anomabo in the Mfantseman District leading to the destruction of the district police station were on Thursday remanded into prison custody by a Cape Coast circuit court.

The suspects, including a woman, are Kwame Afful, 19 years, fisherman, Kodwo Nkrumah, 25, driver, Ekow Amoah, 26, carpenter, Richard Quansah, 20, driver, Obed Obo Mensah, 20, mason and Victoria Dodoo, 31, trader.

They were charged with agreeing to act together with common purpose to commit crime, assault of police officer and damage to police property but their plea was not taken. They will be re-arraigned on Monday, July 21.

Police Inspector Samuel Amoako, who prosecuted, told the court presided over by Mr Kofi Seshie Ametewee that on Tuesday, July 15, at about 1318 hours, the Central Regional Police Commander, DCOP Ransford Moses Ninson, received information that a group of people had attacked the police at the Anomabo Police Station and were vandalizing the place.

He said the Regional Commander, together with his Second in Command and some men, proceeded to the station and found a large crowd of people out of which the six suspects were arrested. He said the suspects, together with the many others who bolted, destroyed everything in the police station and assaulted the policemen on duty.

Inspector Amoako said police investigations were still ongoing. It would be recalled that on Tuesday irate residents of Anomabo went on rampage and vandalized the Anomabo Police Station over the death of a resident who jumped into the sea and got drowned in an attempt to bolt during a police swoop on Monday near Forte Williams.

The angry mob, armed with dangerous implements, carried the dead body which was washed ashore on Tuesday to the station and destroyed furniture, television set, documents, some vehicles and other items worth thousands of cedis in and around the station. But for the intervention of police reinforcement team from the Central Regional Police Command, policemen on duty would have been beaten to pulp.