Cops brutalise helpless cripple, arrest 50

About six police officers have allegedly brutalised a helpless cripple in a small fishing community called Ekpu near Half Assini in the Western Region, some locals have told ClassFMonline.com.

The brutality occurred on Tuesday, 11 April when about 300 officers stormed the town and Half Assini to conduct a swoop.

One resident told ClassFMonline.com that the officers stormed the area with water cannons, truncheons, tear gas, and guns.

He said they were “beating every young person they see, irrespective of who you are, they arrest you and beat you up”, adding: “Right before my eyes, six of them were beating a cripple, a disabled person who was sitting in a wheelchair; in fact they threw his wheelchair away, he was lying on the floor, they were holding sticks, batons and other weapons and they were beating him on the floor.”

Another resident, Stephen Tetteh, who confirmed the assault on the disabled man said the raid could be linked to an earlier attack on a police station in the area by the youth following the death of a young man who was in police custody after being arrested for alleged theft.

The angry youth vandalised the police station and attacked the only officer who was on duty at the time.

According to Stephen Tetteh, the baton-wielding officers, led by the Western Regional Police Commander, indiscriminately beat residents, thus throwing the entire locality into a frenzy.

Assemblyman for the area, Peter Miezah, described the situation as a horrifying one saying such a police raid had never happened in the small community.

Meanwhile, the police command has denied beating up any residents. The command said 50 suspects were rounded up in the swoop.