AMA City Guard killed

Accra, May 10, GNA - A Staff of the Metro Guard Unit of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) was on Wednesday killed in the line of duty. Corporal Peter Acolatse, 44, who was stationed to direct traffic at the intersection between the 28th February Court and the Department of National Lotteries in Accra, died in a hit-and-run incident involving a 207 Mercedes Benz bus with the registration number GR 2126 V.

According to an eyewitness account, Corporal Acolatse asked the driver of the vehicle to stop to give way to other vehicles but the driver refused and Acolatse in an attempt to stop him got hold of the wiper and hanged on the front of the moving vehicle.

The eyewitness said the driver, who was in the vehicle with only his Mate, continued to drive from the Tema Station through the street in front of the Ghana News Agency to the Ministries Traffic Light, where he swerved the vehicle to throw him off onto the concrete pavement; reversed and ran over him.

The eyewitness said the driver sped off immediately. Emmanuel Kwadwo Yeboah, a taxi driver, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA), that he saw Corporal Acolatse lying unconscious on the concrete basement and picked him to the Ridge Hospital where he died shortly. The Deputy Chief Metro Guard, Mr Emmanuel Teye Nuertey said the Unit had the information that one of their men was in a confrontation with a driver and immediately sent a reinforcement team.

He said the team later reported to the Unit that Corporal Acolatse, who joined the AMA in 1989, had been involved in an accident and that he had been sent to the hospital but could not survive.

He said the incident had since been reported to the Ministries Police Station and appealed to the driver as well as the car owner to report to the nearest Police station to assist in investigations. Inspector James Pwazagah, officer in charge of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) at the Ministries Police Station told the GNA that the body of Corporal Acolatse had been deposited at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.

He appealed to the public to assist in tracing the vehicle and the arrest of the hit-and-run driver.