Ghanaian police parade male suspect naked

Monday, 24 May 2004 would surely go down in Ghana?s recent history as the police service?s day of shame. For it was the day the police gave the country?s young democracy a fatal blow, and caused the wheel of civilization to be turned back one complete century.

The police at Kpong paraded a 32-year old married man and father of two, naked to their station for questioning.

Michael Kwame Awusu, a tractor operator, was the unfortunate being. He left his house at about 5.30pm local time to make a call at the nearest communication centre, least suspecting that he was a potential victim to another police abuse and degradation, a story too bad to be told in this age and time, but it happened live and in the full glare of hundreds of Kpong citizens in the Eastern Region of the Republic of Ghana.

Awusu, who was being investigated in a case involving the loss of some tractor parts, was, according to eye-witness account, dragged by Constable Ferguson and another officer for nearly one kilometre without any pants on him, from the main lorry park, through Parkson and Kotonkoli (suburbs of the town) as they led him to the station, while a civilian followed closely with the suspect?s trousers.

The facts of the matter, as gathered by The Chronicle were that Awusu?s former employer, Sustainable End of Hunger Foundation (SEHUF) Farms, in December last year, accused him of stealing some tractor parts valued at ?150million, according figures quoted by the police.

He was arrested then and granted bail, while investigations continued. Between January, this year and now, he had reported to the police a minimum of ten times without any adverse findings against him.

But unfortunately for him, the man who bailed him from police custody (name withheld) died recently, prompting the police to invite him once more because the complainants, SEHUF Farms, were still pressing the charges, and had gone to the top with the matter.

On-lookers of last Monday?s sordid incident, who immediately called The Chronicle newspaper on phone, expressed disgust at the dehumanizing tactic of the Constable, calling it a repetition of Iraq in Ghana.

Robert Kudjoe, unemployed, told this reporter here that he saw the suspect handcuffed and being followed by several people, some of whom were jeering as he was led by, calling it the most shameful scene he had scene.

?If that man were my husband?, says Ameriya, a trader, ?I would either run out of town with my children or commit suicide because I can?t withstand the shame?. ?What satisfactory explanation would I give to my children if they ask me to? She asked rhetorically.

Narrating his ordeal to The Chronicle later in an interview granted the paper through a small pigeonhole at the police cells, Awusu said as he walked out from the communication centre, Constable Ferguson grabbed him so violently at the back of his trousers that he tore both belt and trousers, making the garment drop flat.

?But even after that he did not allow me to cover my nakedness, but continued to drag me along the main road to the station. In fact he directed one Gator, a fisherman, to follow me with the torn trousers to the station. I feel dehumanized,? he lamented. Looking visibly manhandled with virtually closed eyes and large swellings on his face and mouth, the suspect said at the station, Ferguson and another Constable Aryeh, hit him several times on the head with sticks and boots that he, at a point, could not see clearly again. This reporter spotted the wooden plank with which he was allegedly beaten, lying on the counter.

?Aryeh removed his combat boots and hit my head with the hard part of it continuously. All these happened to me while my hands were handcuffed. They had a field day and hit any part of my body that they pleased,? he narrated.

He pointed to a cut under his right eye to prove what he went through, and added that he was thrown into the cell, while he was in handcuffs, for nearly three hours before it was removed.

When contacted for his side of the story, Ferguson said it was Awusu, who removed the trousers, saying ?the suspect was trying to resist arrest.?

He explained that it was when they got close to the station that Awusu?s trousers fell off. But the suspect called the constable a great liar. While Ferguson called Awusu a wee (Indian hemp) smoker, the suspect said the officer was drunk and smelled of alcohol when he confronted him.

The level of torture at the Kpong police station in the Akuse district of the Akropong divisional command has become quite rampant. This reporter can say without looking back that Amusu must have been terribly manhandled, as he claimed.

This reporter noticed deep blood stains in the slippers of a young boy who was bailed out of police custody here last Tuesday, 25 May and when asked what happened to him, he replied, ?Ferguson hit me with a big stick?. The bloodstained slippers and the boy?s plastered left foot are there as living testimonies.

Meanwhile this reporter will soon come out with the details of a case in which a taxi driver was allegedly butchered with a cutlass, that same Monday by his rival at West Kpong. Stay tuned for a minute-by-minute account of the case and the funny cover-ups.

But in a related case of human rights abuse, officers of the Nuaso police station, in the same district, chained the leg of a mother of two to a table at the charge office for 15 hours some two months ago.

Ladjer Teye, a resident of Manyakpongunor, who allegedly fought with some neighbours because she owed them ?30,000, was chained.

She mentioned Omega as one of the policemen who ill-treated her.

She said she regained her freedom after ?60,000 exchanged hands between her relatives and the officers. ?They had to buy my freedom for me to go and breastfeed my two-year old baby?, she hinted.

The Chronicle had usually taken the trouble to draw the attention of the police administration to some of the ?bad nuts? that are surely spoiling the whole basket a couple of times, but it seemed it lacked the will power to purge itself of those nuts.

It would be recalled that on Thursday 19th December 2002, the paper published a story titled: Duty Cop Found Dead Drunk?.

In the story, Constable John Abdul Razak Lieku of the Panthers Unit and stationed at Nuaso was found at 2.00am lying drunk by the side of the road, when he should have been at post 10 kilometres away.

His loaded rifle and motorcycle were dangerously also lying some two meters away. And most seriously, he woke up some hours later and left behind his beret with crown on it. Many in town witnessed the incident.

For six days it could not be found until this reporter intercepted it and handed it over to the then district commander, Superintendent Nat Acquah. The matter was swept under the carpet And recently, an Investigator Quainoo of Ashaiman caused people to unnecessarily languish in jail when he failed to produce them in court. He variously cited lack of vehicle and later handcuff as his hindrances.

Interestingly, there was an instantaneous face-saving rebuttal of that The Chronicle story from the top without finding out whether people whose cases were due for hearing were brought down, and why.

Today, the world is hearing of suspects being stripped and paraded naked by Ghana Police. Maybe Ghanaians should expect another high-class denial. But what they are forgetting is that it takes more than vehicles and weapons to change the face of the police. The courage to accept faults and correct them is also vital.