Sekondi police in coverup?

Though the Minister of Defence, Dr. Kwame Addo Kufuor has stated publicly that his ministry would not shield any undisciplined soldier who would go attacking the civilian population and injuring them, the Sekondi police seem to be thinking contrarily.

It appears they are protecting some of their military counterparts from the Sekondi Naval base who, about three weeks ago, went on rampage in front of the Sekondi police station and assaulted a number of civilians including a 37 year- old taxi driver, Addo Yeboah and Kwame Owusu Yeboa, 22, son of a police officer without any justifiable reason. They were rushed to the Effia Nkwanta hospital for treatment.

Though the police did confirm this story when they were contacted at that time and it was subsequently published in The Chronicle on November 13, last month, they have persistently refused to give information on how far they have gone with their investigations into the case. Both the regional and the Sekondi police have kept on tossing this reporter up and down anytime he called for an update on the story.

The Chronicle leant that frantic efforts were underway to have the case settled amicably but the victims of the brutality were not yielding to the demand, following the decision by the Navy command to pay them only their hospital bills without any compensation.

The victims are reportedly arguing that they have been at home nursing their injuries ever since they were attacked without going to work, therefore would not accept the payment of only their hospital bills without any accompanying compensation by the military.

This reporter was told that the victims had even directed the police to send the case to court for the law to take its course but the police seem to be dragging their feet on the case. As a result, the victims are reportedly contemplating dragging the Ministry of Defence to court on a civil suit.

The Chronicle could however not get the police’s side of the story because of the manner in which they have been tossing this reporter. Last Friday, yours sincerely called the Sekondi district commander to ascertain where they had reached in their investigations into the case but he declined to comment. He instead directed your reporter to the regional commander whom he alleged was handling the case.

When the regional commander, Mr. Asiamah was contacted, he denied calling for the case and that he was handling it at the regional level. Asiamah therefore directed the reporter to contact the Sekondi command for the briefing on the case. When he was told that it was his district commander who had asked the reporter to contact him since he had called for the case, he denied it and insisted that the reporter contact his district commander.

When the Sekondi district commander was again contacted, he said all he had told this reporter earlier was that, the case had been referred to the regional command which could be either the regional commander or his crime officer.

To find out who was telling the truth, the reporter decided to contact the regional crime officer also, but like his boss, he too denied that the case had been referred to him.

It would be recalled that on November 13 last month, The Chronicle carried a front-page story, which alleged that 25 naval ratings from the Sekondi Naval base had gone on rampage the previous Monday, and inflicted several knife wounds on the civilian population without any justifiable reason.

The incident which occurred around 11pm that fateful night actually saw the civilian population who were selling around the Sekondi police traffic light, running helter-skelter to save their dear lives from pistols and knives wielding naval ratings.

The Sekondi district police commander told The Chronicle at that time that, he would write officially to the Naval command to supply him with names of his personnel who took part in the attack.