Apam Police investigates attack on assemblyman

The Apam Police is investigating a case in which an alleged armed bodyguard of Nana Gurah V, Gomoa Onyaadzehen, attacked Mr Isaac Okyere, assemblyman for Gomoa Onyaadze/Bewadze-Otsew-Jukwa electoral area.

Mr Okyere, who is also a teacher at Gomoa Dawurampong Senior High School, told the Ghana News Agency at the weekend that the Police had asked the chief to produce the suspect to assist in their investigations.

The assemblyman gave the name of the alleged assailant as Major Asare of the 64 Battalion Infantry.

Asked whether he had an issue with the chief, Mr Okyere said the whole episode started when he refused to surrender a piece of land belonging to him, which the Onyaadze Chief requested for early this year.

“However, after some time, I gave up the issue and handed over the said land to the chief humbly after I had removed all my packed cement block on the land.”

It would be recalled that when Nana Gurah was contacted on telephone about a week ago on the same issue, he denied any knowledge about the alleged personal bodyguard.

Madam Effua Abbam, a 50-year-old mother of the assemblyman and a farmer, earlier in an interview with the GNA, appealed to the government to do all it could to protect her son, who was threatened with death by the soldier on July 21, 2013.

She said she was terribly traumatized by the way and manner the soldier entered their house from nowhere and suddenly rushed on her son without any provocation, with a message that “I will kill you today, I am in town because of you.”

She said her pregnant daughter-in-law, Mrs Nana Adwoa Okyere, who went to the aid of her husband to plead with the soldier while he struggled with the husband, was pushed down by the alleged assailant, and was subsequently admitted at the Apam Catholic Mission Hospital for three weeks.

Madam Abbam said the daughter-in-law lost the child at birth at the hospital and according to the medical report the pregnancy was eight months two weeks.

Madam Abbam said that, but for the timely intervention of some people from nearby Otsew-Jukwa and Onyaadze town, Major Asare, who claimed to be the bodyguard of Onyaadze Chief, would have killed the son instantly.

She stated that the appeal had become necessary because information reaching them indicated that the alleged assailant, who made an unsuccessful attempt on her son’s life was preparing for another attack anytime from now.

Also, commenting on the issue, Mr Isaac Entsie-Okyere, a junior brother of the assemblyman, said that the entire Okyere family firmly supported their mother’s call and expressed the hope that the government would come to their aid without fail to ensure their safety.

Mr Entsie-Okyere said his mother and people who came to rescue his senior brother on that fateful day, were fully prepared to give evidence to any fact-finding committee that would be appointed by the government to investigate the case.

He added: “We cannot sit down unconcern for the military man to eliminate our brother without any justification.”