A video on social media shows a police officer mobbed by some youth at the chief's palace
A video showing a mob attacking an armed police officer in a chief palace at Sang in the Northern Region has sparked tension between the law officers and some youth of the community, prompting an police investigation.
In the video, believed to be recorded on a mobile phone, about ten youth surrounded the police officer inside a hall of the chief’s palace. The situation escalates and the police officer is violently grabbed by five or more of the men who struggled to tackle him down in order to seize his Ak 47 weapon.
The officer is seen intermittently raising up his weapon and warned to shoot but the brazen attack continued to mount him.
The video has been posted to social media to draw public attention after some police officers threatened to hunt down the attackers.
Some of the angry police officers said they will “deal with” the attackers if authorities fail to act.
The Yendi police command confirmed the authenticity of the footage, saying the incident happened on July 2, and added that investigations were already underway.
He said the police officer seen in the video was called to the palace to arrest two suspected thieves who stole cables and were about to be lynched by the youth.
The Yendi police commander, Chief Superintendent Peter Kofi Ayirezang, said the youth insisted on lynching the suspects, Hamza Abdul Rahman and Alhassan Haruna, and prevented the officer from carrying out his lawful duty by heckling him and even attempted to seize his rifle.
The commander revealed that the chief has been served notice to handover the youth seen attacking the officer in the video. He said the police have shown enough courtesy and respect to the chief and elders and requested them to commit to the ongoing investigation by handing over the attackers to face charges.
The commander promised to bring the people saying, if the chief failed to collaborate, the police would find means to arrest the attackers.
