Police Chief slaps Lance Corporal

Information DAILY GUIDE has gathered indicates that the Western Regional Police Commander, DCOP Isaac Alex Quainoo, allegedly subjected a Lance Corporal in the region to severe beatings last Thursday.

This was after the lower-ranked policeman, who is with the Rapid Deployment Force (RDF), reportedly arrested the Commander for allegedly making a wrong U-turn around the Vodafone area in Takoradi.

DAILY GUIDE gathered that the Commander was by then driving his private car when the purported incident took place at about 7pm.

According to sources, the Lance Corporal (name withheld for now), who purportedly received the beatings, was among three other lower-ranked police personnel who were on night duty on the dual-carriage road at the Vodafone area.

A source close to the police told DAILY GUIDE that when the three junior police personnel were on duty in the area, they saw a private vehicle having made a wrong U-turn and so they quickly stopped it.

The paper learnt that one of the policemen went closer to the vehicle and realized that it was the Regional Commander who was driving with his wife on board.

“The first policeman then saluted the Commander immediately he realized that DCOP Quainoo was the driver and quickly left the scene,” the source indicated.

It intimated that the Lance Corporal later went closer but unfortunately, could not realize that his boss was the one driving and so he decided to arrest him for making a wrong U-turn.

According to information, DCOP Quainoo asked him to get on board the vehicle, which he did, and drove straight to the Takoradi Central Police Station where he (Lance Corporal) was put behind bars.

A police source alleged that from the Vodafone area to the police station, DCOP Quainoo subjected his subordinate to severe beatings, slapping him in the face.

Some police personnel in the region, who spoke to DAILY GUIDE on condition of anonymity, asserted that the Lance Corporal could not identify the Regional Commander when the former went closer to him probably because he had some problem with the eyes.

The personnel hinted the paper that that was the third time the police officer had physically assaulted his subordinates in the region.

They have therefore called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Alhassan, to call him to order.

Efforts to get the victim to comment on the incident were not successful as several calls to his cellular phone were picked by someone else.

However, unconfirmed reports had it that the victim was on admission at a hospital for treatment.

Police Commander Reacts

When DAILY GUIDE contacted DCOP Quainoo he stated, “The story is not true. I was even with my wife in the car.”

He however, indicated that the three police personnel were on illegal duty and were arresting vehicles “so I was with my wife and came across them. They stopped me unknowingly and I arrested one of them and placed him in custody; that was all.”

When DAILY GUIDE further asked whether he really made a wrong U-turn, the Commander answered in the negative.

He explained that he was heading towards the Kwame Nkrumah round-about on the Vodafone road and on reaching a designated U-turn he turned back adding, “It was not a wrong U-turn.”

DCOP Quainoo alleged that the lower-ranked personnel, numbering about five, had arrested a vehicle when he got there.