Teleko-Bokazo youth deny brutalising police

Accra, Oct. 10, GNA - The Police was on Tuesday accused of destroying houses, looting stores and stealing money from the people of Teleku-Bokazo, Nkroful and Anwia in the Nzema East District of the Western Region.

A Spokesman of a group calling itself concerned citizens, Mr Stephen Donkor told a news conference in Accra that contrary to earlier media reports that the youths of the area vandalised the villages, it was rather the police that carried out the pillaging.

He said the youths were not involved in the burning down of houses and breaking into stores.

"As I'm speaking, my 72-year old father's house was vandalised and he has to start life all over again," he said.

"Why should the youth whom I am leading come to my house and destroy my property at night and retreat into the bush?" Mr Donkor asked. He said the whole village was deserted as both the young and the old had to run for dear life.

The news conference was organised by the National Coalition on Mining to give the people from the two communities the opportunity to tell their side of the story and to find amicable solutions to the problem confronting them.

On September 30, the youth of the two communities were alleged to have brutalised two policemen from the Mobile Force Unit of the Ghana Police Service in Takoradi and seized their AK 47 assault riffles loaded with 30 rounds of ammunition each.

Some youth were said to have gone to Adamus Resources Limited, a gold prospecting company, to resist an attempt by the Company to bring in prospecting machines to the site.

According to Mr Donkor they had on a number of occasions met with the former Minister of Lands and Forestry and told him why they were resisting any attempt by companies to carry out surface mining in those communities.

Mr Donkor alleged that the Minister assured them that he would meet with the Leadership and members of the communities to find amicable solution to the issue but they never heard from him.

He said the two communities were occupying a small plot of land and ejecting them from their settlements meant depriving them of the right of belonging and putting them under a different traditional area. "Apart from that we are farmers and those of us in the hinterland produce food to feed those along the coast. For that reason we cannot allow surface mining as it would lead to starving our people," he said. He, therefore, appealed to the authorities; civil society organisations and the National Coalition on Mining to assist them to get legal aid to represent those arrested and also to help them to solve the problems.

Mr Abdullah Dramani, Co-ordinator of the Coalition, alleged that the incident was not an isolated one, as it was linked with systematic police brutalities meted out to mining communities.

"We are not saying that they should not maintain law and order but they should be able to do that without beating and brutalising the victims," he said.