Elmina Police On Rampage

By Gifty Arthur

If disciplinary measures at the Ghana Police Service are anything to go by, then the Elmina District Commander, DSP G O Asare, will any moment from now be finding himself wanting.

He, together with a colleague have been summoned before the Police Intelligence and Professional Standard Bureau (PIPS) for abusing their powers.

Such is the expectation of lawyers of some seven citizens of Brenu Akyenim, who were severely brutalized by the police upon the alleged instructions of the commander, on Easter Monday April 9, 2012.

The petition sent to the Director of PIPS by the lawyers, has called for an immediate investigation into the alleged attack, and subsequent punishment to the officers if found guilty of assault and battery.

PIPS, a unit set up to receive and investigate complaints from the public about the conducts of police personnel, is being requested to make sure that the officers involved are asked to go on suspension, since their continued stay at their current post may hamper investigations.

“The police officers ought not to remain on duty while the case is pending and their powers and functions as police officers ought to be ceased forthwith in accordance with law and police disciplinary proceedings and regulations” the petition said.

Besides the investigations by PIPS, the lawyers, according to the petition which was copied to the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), National Security Coordinator, Inspector General of Police (IGP), the Attorney General and Minister of Justice and the Central Regional Minister of have been directed to proceed to court for appropriate redress.

According to the petition signed by Heward-Mills and Company, lawyers for the victims, on April 9, 2012, which coincidentally was Easter Monday, the victims namely: Solomon Gyenfie, Kwesi Kaya, Fusena, Kweku Mensah, Kwesi Tawiah, Kofi Nkum and Andre Kwame Gyenfie were among a crowd of merrymakers at the Brenu Beach, where they were brutally assaulted by the Police

Without any provocation, the petition alleged that the officers under the directive of Commander DSP Asare indiscriminately shot bullets and tear gas into the holiday makers.

A German immigrant Peter Borger and his Ghanaian wife Agnes Naana Borger have been accused as being behind the attack by the Policemen to serve their “personal business and malicious interest”.

The seven victims, from the indiscriminate shooting of the about 30 officers, sustained various degrees of injuries which are at the moment being nursed at the Central Regional Hospital. Kwesi Kaya, one of the victims, was savagely beaten to pulp and shot with a rubber bullet, and as a result fell unconscious.

Realizing he might have died from the brutalities, the Policemen made an attempt to transport his almost lifeless body to the hospital, but, miraculously, Kaya regained his breath. However, unbelievably, the officers were again instructed to send him to the Elmina Police Station where he was detained in spite of his already deteriorating condition.

One other victim Solomon Gyenfie was also subjected to terrible police brutalities as they hit him on countless times on the head with the butts of their guns and again denied him medical attention.

These attacks came on after the Brenu Development Company (BDC), owned by the Brenu Akyem Trust, notified the Divisional Commander at Cape Coast, and the Regional Commander Andoh-Koufie, in writing, dated April 6, 2012, and copied to the IGP, requesting that they be protected on the said date, as they intended to organize and sponsor the yearly Easter Beach Festival in the town.

Earlier, according to the petition, the police had come to the beach, and in an unlawful manner removed the banners and posters which were been used to advertise the event.

The victims alleged that Chief-Inspector Gabriel Humadu is one officer who breaks the laws of his office with impunity, as they claim they have him on tape expressing his contempt and defiance of the rule of law and the Police Command chain, describing them as mere “cosmetics”.

The victims are convinced that the Borgers are the ones behind the unlawful attack on them, citing immediate events before the attack on them in which they saw Chief Inspector Humadu and his partner in crime DSP Asare with the 30 officers being entertained with food and drinks by the couple.

“After the police officers consumed the food and drinks lavishly provided by the suspects, Mr. and Mrs. Borger, they then proceeded on their wanton and unlawful attacks on innocent citizens”, they alleged.

The petition traced the recent attack on the victims from as far back as “April 2010, where the same couple in a bid to unlawfully lay an apartheid claim to the Brenu Beach engaged the Elmina Police to stop all peaceful festivities at the beach.

In January this year, the petition alleged that Mr. Andre Gyenfie, one of the victims, was threatened at gun point, and after the issue was reported to the Cape Coast Police, and when the suspects were arrested, no news was heard from the police on the matter again.

The counsels for the victims hoped that judging by the activities of PIPS their petition would be immediately looked into, as the victims are prepared to help make the investigation very smooth by providing the necessary information by way of video footages, bullets fired by the police, used tear gas cans, medical reports and photographs.