A prison officer attempted assassinating me, Dramani alleges

Former Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central Constituency, Alhaji Adamu Dramani Sakande, has alleged that a senior prisons officer attempted strangling him while hospitalized at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. He was then serving a two-year prison sentence.

He said he has not made a formal report on the incident but has broken his silence because he wants the right thing to be done.

Speaking to TV3’s Komla Klutse in an exclusive interview during the week, the former New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP said the senior officer introduced himself as Director of Operations of Ghana Prisons Service.

“He came with people in mufti to strangle me in Korle Bu. I think on my first day,” Alhaji Dramani Sakande recounted.

“I am yet to make a formal complaint,” he admitted but stated that he is divulging the issue because “I want such issues to be resolved so that it never ever happens again”.

No revenge

“I don’t want revenge and I don’t want anybody losing his job. I just want the right thing to be done,” he told Komla Klutse.

Acting Head of Public Affairs at the Ghana Prisons Service, DSP Vitalis Aiyeh, however, dismissed the allegations of the former MP, saying it is a normal practice for prison officers to put medical restraint on prisoners.

“We put it on [prisoners'] leg so that [they] don’t escape from us,” he said, stressing it would be an indictment on the Service if a prisoner escapes with the pretext of falling sick.

Alhaji Dramani Sakande was found guilty by an Accra Fast Track Court for false declaration of office, perjury and deceit of a public officer.

He was originally charged on nine counts but was exonerated on six on July 8, 2010 and had to spend years battling in court.

He was sentenced to two years in jail but was taken ill prior to the end of his term following a cardiac arrest.

He was granted presidential pardon in November last year.