Military Probes Brutality On Driver

By Kofi Yeboah

The Military Police (MP), the branch of the army that is in charge of disciplinary issues concerning the Ghana Armed Forces, has launched an investigation into the assault case in which some soldiers were reported to have severely beaten up a driver.

Last Saturday, three people were invited by the Military Police to write a statement on what transpired between the soldiers and the driver.

They are James Ocloo, the driver himself, Wayne Thomas, an African-American who was in the vehicle with James Ocloo and an eye-witness who pleaded for anonymity.

The driver is said to have submitted the medical report on him to the Military Police.

James Ocloo was on April, 7, 2011, brutally assaulted by some soldiers of the Dog Training Academy at North Dzorwulu, a suburb of Accra.

He was severely beaten up by the soldiers numbering about six for removing a barricade they had used in blocking the road near the Dog Training Academy.

Ocloo suffered a dislocation in the arm, and was rushed to the 37 Military Hospital in Accra, where he was treated by Captain Dr. K. Nyarko Oppong, and discharged after being detained for three days.

An eye-witness to the brutality told The Herald that on the day of the assault, he was coming from town to h is office at North Dzowulu in a taxi, and just when he got to the academy, he saw the sign “road closed, training in progress” planted in the middle of the road.

However, the driver of a taxi cab ahead of him had removed the barricade, drove his cab forward and had come back to swing the barricade back into its original position.

Then the driver of a Pajero vehicle, which had stopped in the opposite direction, also got down, swung the barricade off the road, moved the vehicle through, got down again and was swinging the barricade back into its original position when he was accosted by three gentlemen from the academy, demanding to know why he had passed through despite the “road close” sign.

Realizing that he had erred, James Ocloo started pleading. This drew some construction workers to the scene.

But the scenario changed when a fair-coloured man rushed out from the academy, shouting on top of his voice, threatening to beat up Ocloo for opening the barricade.

He rushed onto Ocloo, and started punching him in the face. A scuffle then ensued, and about six men entered the fray, delivering blows and kicks to the body of Ocloo.

The eye-witness said, the fair-coloured man went for a club and started hitting Ocloo until he fell down, crying in anguish that he was dead.

Having realized that any further beating could lead to the death of Ocloo, the men, apparently soldiers not in military uniform at the time, went away to the academy. But one quickly came back to take the club, knowing that it could serve as evidence against them.