Assault case: Police refusing to disclose whereabouts of ‘Trotro’ Driver and Mate – Lawyers

The Human Rights Advocacy Centre (HRAC) has called on the Ghana Police Service to provide its office with details of the whereabouts of the commercial bus driver and his conductor, who allegedly assaulted a police officer at Weija on 16 March 2019, to enable the centre grant the accused persons legal representation.

In a statement released by the Human Rights Advocacy Centre (HRAC), the centre explained that the Odorkor District Police claims to have transferred the two from their custody to the police headquarters in Accra, officials at the headquarters also denied receiving the accused persons.

The driver, Francis Buabeng, and his mate, Albert Ansah, were arrested last week after they were captured in video exchanging blows with a uniformed police officer at a bus stop around Weija in Accra.

Read Full Statement below.

We visited the Odorkor District Police Station to visit the accused persons and provide them with legal representation in accordance with their right to fair trial under Article 19 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana. An Investigator at the station, Officer Jonas, however, informed us that the accused persons had been transferred to the Police Headquarters. The representatives of the Human Rights Advocacy Centre proceeded to the Police Headquarters to make enquiries and were informed that the Police Headquarters did not maintain holding cells for remanded persons and that the accused persons could not be in their custody.

We are, by this statement, bringing to the attention of the general public that we do not know the whereabouts of the two accused persons. The Ghana Police Service has failed and refused to inform us of their whereabouts and have denied us access to the accused persons despite the fact that they were in the custody of the police as of 18 March when they were arraigned in Weija. This is an obvious violation of their right to legal representation and contrary to the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.



We are calling on the Ghana Police Service to immediately provide the Human Rights Advocacy Centre with information on the place of detention of the two accused persons as requested in our letter to the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department, Police Headquarters, copied to the Inspector General of the Ghana Police Service and the Commander of the Odorkor District Police Station, dated 21 March 2019 and also demanding immediate access to the accused persons to enable” the HRAC “provide them with legal representation.