Human Rights groups demand justice for boy shot and abandoned by police

Human Rights groups are calling on the Inspector General of Police and CHRAJ to immediately intervene to save the life of a 19-year-old boy who was mistakenly shot by the Police at ACP in Accra.

The Police who were on a hunt for some suspected robbers following the gang attack on the Kwabenya Police station accidently repeatedly shot Jonathan Odai Laryea who had been sent on an errand.

Six months after the incident, Odai Laryea still has three bullets in his thigh as the Police administration has refused to agree to foot the bill for a surgery at the Police hospital after they initially took him there for treatment.

The dejected looking Laryea who looks frail as a result of the pain in his thigh told Starr News’ Regina Borley Bortey Thursday that he asked the officers to kill him when he noticed he had been shot repeatedly in the thigh.

“After the guys shot me in the leg, I told them to kill me because I don’t know what to do. So I was put in a car and by the time I realized I was at the Police Hospital”.

His mother who appears tired of seeking for justice from the Police said she has run out of money to continue treatment for her son.

“The doctor at the Police hospital says he can’t give us a referral letter to Korle-Bu as they can do the surgery at their hospital, As I speak I have borrowed so much already and I don’t know how I’m going to pay back. We have been trying all means to get the Police to help us but they have refused”.

The Greater regional Police command has declined comment on the matter.

Commenting on the development, human rights advocate Francis Sosu told Starr News the incident “demonstrates the height of insensitivity of the police and there must be some swift action by police heads in salvaging the situation”.

He further stressed: “The police administration must be thinking of how to compensate the boy for putting him in that condition”.

Also contributing, the executive director for the Bureau of Public Safety Nana Yaw Akwada said the police must enhance their communication with the citizenry in order to avoid such abuses.

“The police must draw policies and procedures and communicate same to the citizenry. The public has demonstrated that they do not have faith in PIPS”.