Lockdown: Man allegedly beaten to death by police in Kumasi

A 40-year old man, Kwabena Tweneboah Kodua has died after allegedly suffering a brutal assault in the hands of a police patrol team that was enforcing the partial lockdown on Monday night at Konkori, near Kumasi in the Atwima Kwanwoma District of the Ashanti region.

Mother of the deceased, Maame Adwoa Mena told Kumasi-based Angel FM in an interview monitored by Mynewsgh.comWednesday morning that, “they beat him with the barrels of their guns and kicked him on the ground till he started bleeding profusely; they said he was standing in front of his house at a time that he was expected to be sleeping”.

According to eyewitnesses, the patrol team stormed the town that night and attempted to arrest some persons who had gathered on the streets but was unsuccessful; they later found the deceased standing in front of his house which stands few metres away from the main road and turned their wrath on him.

The patrol team of three policemen, according to Maame Adwoa Mena also “planted ‘wee’ on him and when he protested that he knew nothing about the herbs, they handcuffed him to the bucket of the pick up; they later sat him in the car drove off”.

“We were informed in the morning that my son had been admitted at the Kotwi Clinic; when we rushed there, the policemen said he had fallen off from the bucket of the pickup and smashed his head on the ground; they begged me not to make the matter public or the Police Administration would handcuff him on the sickbed and later jail him when he gets better. I didn’t say anything because I feared the consequences as they had threatened me”.

“The deceased was later referred to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital when his condition got worse on Tuesday afternoon, all the bills were footed by the policemen who were now begging me to remain quiet over the matter or they lose their jobs, I don’t know their names but I can identify each of them; they said they are stationed at the central police station,” she said.

Tweneboah Kodua died at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital on Tuesday night.

The family is yet to make an official complaint to the Ghana Police Service.