Anger and frustration eating up Ghanaians

Frustration and anger, is engulfing the country with citizens ready to violently attack people and cause havoc at the least provocation. These attacks, have sometimes resulted in the deaths of victims.

It is not yet clear, whether poverty, disappointment and loss of hope are to blame for the situation.

Although, the dust over the gruesome murder of Captain Maxwell Mahama at Denkyira-Obuasi is yet to settle, another man, has been lynched in a Kumasi suburb.

The man believed to be in his 40s, was found lynched at Krono Odumasi, also known as K.O, near Adehyeman Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.

The incident, according to the Manhyia divisional police command, happened yesterday dawn around 5am.

As the Kumasi police was conveying his body to the morgue, four officials of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) working at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle interchange in Accra, were nursing injuries sustained in an attack on them by some angry traders.

The traders, unleashed their physical aggression on the AMA officials, when they tried to evict them from the pavement on Tuesday evening.

One of the victims, Yunus Hamza, told Citi News that most of their attackers, were drivers of the VIP station, who have vowed to resist any attempt to evict the hawkers.

Two personnel of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) also have been hospitalized after being severely beaten by some residents of Assin-Akropong in the Central Region.

The Assin Fosu District Police Commander Supt Magnus Sam said that the two were beaten in a free-for-all fight with residents.

They are said to be part of six officers who stormed the community to retaliate the death of a civilian friend. They ended up beating the wrong person and this angered the residents who began a street fight with the officers.

Four of the officers managed to escape while two of them endured a severe beating at the hands of the residents. They later rushed to a nearby police station for protection. They have since been hospitalised at St. Francis Hospital in Assin-Fosu after sustaining injuries.

The six officers were identified as A.I.C.O II Egah Gyemfi, Okoto Larry, Lesley Takie, Benjamin Nkansah, Richard Mensah and Gabriel Adomah.

Against At Okurasi in the Upper West Akyem District of the Eastern region on Tuesday, some angry youth of nearly lynched a man for allegedly having sex with his friend’s wife.

This was after the man, named Kwabena Koomson was caught red-handed in the act with the married woman.

The youth in the town, who were angered by the act gathered at his house in their numbers with clubs and forcibly opened his door.

Koomson was, however, saved from the mob attack when the assemblyman for the area arrived at the scene and managed to whisk him away from the crowd.

It comes as Delta Forces and the Invincible Forces, linked to New Patriotic Party (NPP), have staged separate attacks on state officials, injuring some and locking up offices in Ashanti Region, Eastern Region, Brong Ahafo and several other places.

Judges, have also been attacked and suspects set freed lawful custody.

At Somanya in the Eastern Region, some residents attacked the ECG office vandalizing state property, including vehicles and official there over high electricity bills.

Upon arrest, they stormed the police station again vandalize it and sent home their colleagues. 14 of them are on remand currently in Koforidua recurrently.

In the case of the AMA taskforce, Yunus Hamza, told“ the Citi FM that “….at about 9:00am while on their usual patrol, we saw someone selling on the pavement and some drivers seated on a bench across the pavement. When we approached them and told them it was wrong, another driver came from the station and told us that they have been instructed to beat anyone who attempts to evict them mercilessly.”

“Moments after, our boss came around and confronted the same people, one of the drivers stuck his arm with a log. Our boss told us to return because he was sensing danger. We were just about to leave when more drivers came around and begun pelting us with stones.

One of them came with a brick and hit my chin with it. I had part of a tooth broken because of that,” he added. According to Hamza, the police say they have arrested one person in connection with the incident.

“We reported to the Kaneshie Police and wrote our statement on Wednesday. We are told they’ve arrested two people, but we are yet to see them,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Numo Blafo II, who spoke to Citi News on the matter, condemned the incident, and called on the media to support the assembly fight such happenings.

He said, one of the victims was currently in a critical condition. “Two of them are not here, one is in a critical condition,” he said. He said his outfit would not retreat in its operation to rid the pavements of hawkers due to the challenges it poses to the management of the city.

The Kumasi police, said the cause of the murder is not yet known, but the police suspect he might be a thief.

The body has been deposited at the Komfo Anokye teaching hospital in Kumasi for investigations to commence.

The Krono Odumasi community, has gained notoriety in murdering people they suspect as thieves.

At least two suspected thieves, have been murdered in the month of May 2017 with uncountable cases unrecorded.

Chief Superintendent Kwaku Boah, Manhyia Divisional police commander, told Ultimate FM’s Isaac Bediako that, Ghanaians must have confidence in the Police and end instant justice.

“We had a distress call this morning that someone has been killed, we found him in a pool of blood and we spoke to some people who believe that he might have committed the crime somewhere and and has been killed, but if someone has stolen a phone does the value of a phone match the life of a human being, this thing must stop, it should stop now, you don’t have the right to take the life of another person and it’s about time we end instance justice once and for all in this country.

“We must have confidence in the Police ,we must have confidence in our systems, we must have confidence in our law courts, it’s not right that we take the laws into our own hands and kill people,” he bemoaned.

Meanwhile, Assembly Member for the Krono Odumasi electoral area, Alexander Sarfo Kesse, blamed the police for responding late to the distress calls from the community on lynching cases.

He, however, added that he was working to ensure his electoral area members put an end to the practice.

The Cape Coast Magistrate Court presided over by Her Ladyship, Rita Amoaning Adusei, has in the meantime remanded into police custody, the seven suspects been held for their involvement in the killing of Captain Mahama.

The police sought yesterday for the remand to aid them complete their investigations into the case.

Prosecution was led by ASP Helinious Ayonyo and the defence lawyer was George Bernard Shaw.

The seven have been charged with murder and will reappear on June 19, this year.

Captain Maxwell Mahama was lynched by residents allegedly on suspicion he was an armed robber.

His painful death, threw the country into a state of shock with a large section of the public condemning the dastardly act.

President Akufo-Addo, has vowed to ensure that the perpetrators are dealt with ruthlessly according to the law.