Police Bullet Leaves Man Blind

Mr. Kwaku Owusu, a 40-year- old farmer and resident of Anyinam in the Eastern Region began this year with hope for the future. He expected to see the positive change promised by his political party with his eyes. That is, until a bullet fired from a policeman's gun left him one-eyed.

Chronicle investigations revealed that a scorched-earth operation involving gun-totting policemen from the Eastern Regional Police Headquarters at Anyinam four months ago, saw a bullet from the gun of a police officer hit Owusu in the left eye.

He blackened out and woke up at a nearby hospital the next day with a ruptured eye, fatally changing his life forever.

His tragedy began on June 30, this year, when a detachment of police personnel from the Regional Headquarters stormed a funeral at Anyinam in the early hours to arrest an alleged notorious drug peddler, one Kwame Boateng.

The Eastern Regional Crime Officer, Superintendent S. D. Anyan, who ordered the police to undertake the operation told Chronicle in an interview weeks ago that Boateng was arrested with a quantity of Indian hemp.

He said a mob of 200 from the town descended on the police during the arrest of Boateng at a house adjacent to the funeral grounds.

He said the police, who were in mufti, in the midst of the mob action, identified themselves to the people, but the mob, wielding clubs and stones would not budge.

According to Supt. Anyan, the police decided to disperse the people with warning shots while a re-enforcement of police personnel later intervened in support of their colleagues who fled to safety at the police station.

As a result, the arrested drug peddler managed to bolt with the handcuffs.

Later, the police were to learn that a bullet hit and blinded Kwaku Owusu in the left eye when he turned up at the police station to report his case.

He was given a medical form to seek medical treatment.

The account of the victim, however, differs from that of the police.

Owusu, told the Chronicle that on the night of June 29, he kept wake at his uncle's funeral after which he decided to leave and spend the night in a family house nearby.

According to him, when he returned to the funeral ground the next morning, he noticed a scuffle at a nearby house and decided to stay away from the scene of the incident.

It was during the scuffle that Owusu said he realised someone pulled a gun and started firing.

He woke up the next day at the hospital, where he realised he had lost an eye.

He was later referred to the Koforidua Central Hospital for treatment.

He told the Chronicle that anytime he goes to the regional police office, some of the officers threaten to arrest him on grounds that he is a suspect in the case.

According to Owusu, his predicament has resulted in his inability to undertake any job due to pains in his head anytime he bows his head.

His immediate family of four is also finding it difficult to survive, as his health situation has pushed the whole burden on his wife, a petty trader.

Accounts gathered by the Chronicle from Anyinam indicate that old ladies were trampled upon in their attempt to flee the scene of the warning shots, with those who cannot flee seeking refuge near the bed on which the deceased was laid.

Some of the citizens of the town denied the claims of the Eastern Regional Police Command, accusing them of trying to cover-up the misdeeds of their colleagues.

They claim that the police erred in their operation, an allegation the police boss debunked later.

They also called for compensation for Owusu, since according to them, he is a victim of a misguided action by the police.

Superintendent Anyan would not say anything to that effect when Chronicle raised the issue with him.

However, he maintained that the operation was a lawful one and that the police fired the shots in "self defence."

Reacting to why the police fired the warning shots which resulted in some mourners fleeing the funeral grounds and whether such step was necessary, especially when the occasion was a funeral and some people might be drunk, Anyan said though he was not personally present during the operation, he believe the police were defending themselves given the degree of the injuries they sustained.

Quizzed whether military personnel, who were present at the funeral were part of those who assisted Boateng to bolt, the Crime Officer said it is only an investigation which would prove the truth or otherwise of that allegation.

A son of the deceased's son is a soldier and several soldiers were present on the day of the shooting.

According to the head of the centre, Dr. Mark Quartey, the 40-year-old farmer reported at the hospital with a ruptured eye, with almost its content gashed out.

A x-ray taken revealed the presence of a foreign material on the said eye and on the request of the victim, the affected eye was later removed.

Since then Owusu has been receiving treatment.

He received artificial eye on September 11. Meantime, police investigations continue in an effort to arrest Boateng, the alleged drug pusher.