Crime Police Assault

Police personnel in Bawku Assault 52-year-old watchman

Bawku (UE), Sept. 7, GNA - Four men suspected to be Police personnel in Bawku central assaulted a 52-year-old watchman, Mr Karimu Amadu on the night of Tuesday, August 31, 2011.

Mr Amadu told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that at about 00:30 hours that night, he and his12-year-old son Issifu Karimu were at his post, a shop belonging to Weziena Ventures in Bawku central, when they saw four men approaching the area, three of them holding AK47 rifles while the remaining one was wielding a stick and demanded him to leave his post.

He said he identified himself as the watchman and demanded for their identity and in the process they took offence and began to beat him up and dragged him out of his post, saying they were sending him to the police station because he was a thief.

Mr Amadu said he called for help and some people came out to plead with the men but they refused and went ahead to beat him up until he collapsed.

He wondered why the policemen insisted that he should leave his post even after they had been made to know that he was the watchman.

Confirming the watchman's story, Madam Adama Issah, an eye witness told the GNA that upon hearing the shouting of the watchman for help, she and other neighbours came out and saw three of the men in police uniform with no headgear, while the fourth person was in civilian dress and holding a stick.

When the GNA visited the police station to find out whether any of the police patrol teams had made a complaint in relation to the incident, the officer on duty who did not want to disclose his identity, denied that any such report had been made.

Superintendent of police Samuel Kwaku Allordey, Bawku Municipal Police commander, said the police had no information about policemen involved in any such incident in Bawku, but that the said watchman was suspected by the patrol team to be a thief and was arrested.

The Divisional Crime Officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Adamu seidu, refuted the allegation and confirmed that the police arrested a watchman at the cold store who had earlier resisted arrest. However, investigations were ongoing, he added.