Soldiers brutalise man over girlfriend’s missing phone

Two soldiers in Bolgatanga, Upper East regional capital, have reportedly brutalised a man over a missing phone belonging to their girlfriend.

The victim, Nashiru Yahaya, was dehumanised around Sawaba, a community close to the Bolgatanga Police Station, by the military men who punched his eyes until they streamed blood in an open torture that lasted more than an hour.

The soldiers are said to be among the troops recently deployed in the troubled capital to quell recurring clashes between two factions trapped in a longstanding chieftaincy conflict.

A disturbed crowd watched from a cautious distance as the victim staggered under a dizzying dose of slaps and blows from his tormentors who also made attempts to undress him. But the crowd, joined by his relatives, pleaded with them not to peel off his clothes because he was a married man with children.

It took overwhelming pleas from the crowd to secure a temporary break for the battered man from the bullying soldiers.

“I can identify the soldiers,” the recovering victim told Starr News later, surrounded by his angry relatives after his release. “One of them is called Nana, but in town they call him ‘animal’. I can identify them,” he affirmed.

Victim molested to satisfy soldiers’ “girlfriend” One Alima, a sales assistant said to be a “girlfriend” to the soldiers, is alleged to have let loose the officers on Nashiru Yahaya for misplacing a phone she gave him to unlock.

Mr. Yahaya explained that the handset got missing mysteriously and that he bought a new one to replace it but the young woman rejected it.

“That lady is more or less like a family friend. It was a small galaxy phone, Galaxy Young. I told her to give me some time to look for the phone. She ran out of patience. I was out of the house when my mother called to inform me that Alima came with two soldiers looking for me. The next day I bought a Galaxy Star phone for her. She rejected it.

“Then, the following day the lady called me to bring the phone that she wanted to assess it. I met her with the soldier men sitting. They asked, ‘Where is the phone?’ I gave the phone to her. Before I realised, one of them collected the phone and hit it on my eye. And they started beating me like someone who stole. It was when my family came and said they would buy another one they left me,” he narrated.

Torture to resume

The victim, who is due to visit the hospital Wednesday whilst his family is yet to decide the future of the matter, is living in fear.

This is because the same soldiers, after the brutality, purportedly stormed his house and told his mother to produce her son.

“My friends told me that the soldiers came to attack my mother. They were telling my mother that they had not even beaten me; they just touched me. It’s now that they are coming to beat me, because somebody had reported the case to their boss and the boss had given them the go-ahead to beat me. They asked her to produce me, trying to harass her, saying all sorts of things,” Mr. Yahaya said.

When contacted by Starr News on the telephone, Alima recoiled from the questions asked and promised to call back but never did.

Meanwhile, the Upper East Regional Minister, Albert Abongo, who doubles as the Chairman of the Regional Security Council (REGSEC), has indicated he would get to the bottom of the alleged brutality.

Mr. Yahaya has declined to report the case to the police for now, saying: “If I’m going to report this case to the police, I’m just going to waste my time because they are the law. They are all security people. It’s so sad, because of the uniform, you brutalised me this way. A lot of people gathered, thinking I was a thief. All those who know me know that I’m a gentle person. They tried to undress me in public. I’m so embarrassed.”

Swelling cases of brutalities A cloud of tension floats over the capital as armed feuding royals, separated by peacekeeping troops, continue to stare in silence at each other from both sides.

Terror, an unexpected intruder, became the price the area, which was once billed as Ghana’s Geneva because of its general air of stability, now pays for peace ever since the troops landed and pitched their green tents. Several cases of alleged brutalities involving the military, and having nothing to do with the chieftaincy feud, have been reported. And the more they are reported, the more they occur.

Some residents went to bed groaning so loud their neighbours had to forgo their sleep after the last bloody clash erupted between the conflicting clans on Sunday April 3, this year. They returned home that night saying they had been assaulted by soldiers too stiff to be tickled with any excuse for roaming at night. Lights were on after the clash, but the whole capital retired indoors sooner than usual with residents left in the dark in their minds because curfew was not imposed but soldiers reportedly flogged anyone they found in the streets at nightfall.

People crashed head-on running away from flying whips and rods, with some elderly people summersaulting into gutters. An elderly man, after he had escaped to a corner with only a half of his footwear, lamented in the midst of the street commotion that soldiers grabbed his shirt by the collar and concentrated the whip on his ears “as if I’m a donkey”.

Subsequently, a young man suffered another form of brutality for unknown reasons. One of the eyewitnesses (name withheld) told Starr News in a recorded interview that: “They beat the guy at Atulbabisi here. The guy had to remove his shirt and then ran away just to save himself.”

“Those soldiers are disturbing the community,” another resident complained to Starr News.

Yesterday, I had to send my brother from hospital to hospital. When the soldiers beat him, we thought it was normal. But yesterday he said he [couldn’t] breathe. They stopped him because he was riding an unregistered motorbike. He stopped and handed over the key to them. Then, he tried to call our brother who is a fire service man. Then, one of the soldiers said even if he called the President, John Mahama, they are here to beat and kill. Then, my brother said he was calling the owner of the bike. Then, they started beating him.”

Soldiers ‘take over’ DOVVSU’s boots There is another alleged development that suggests the military are gradually taking over the role of the law enforcement agents, precisely officers of the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU).

Starr News learns that some soldiers recently raided another area in the capital after a woman had reported her husband to them for alleged assault.

A respected opinion leader, who disclosed this, said the community would soon come out with some findings.

“As at now, we have recorded a case. They (soldiers) beat one man in Zongo because he fought with his wife. The wife reported him to them and they beat the man. We will report all those incidents,” he said.

There are concerns the trend, if not checked immediately, could turn law and order upside down by establishing a military kangaroo court for abused spouses or partners seeking quick action and instant redress.

The latest victim of the alleged vicious attacks in the municipality, Mr. Yahaya, maintains he wants his case to be the last of such abuses.

“About 45 percent of the people in Bolga witnessed what happened to me. I feel pains, especially my eye. That case should have been a police case, that is if I failed to replace the phone for her, so that the law can take its course. I find it difficult to come out. If I can get somebody who can help me to take up this case, I would be very happy. Not me, but for others. Mine is already passed. We don’t know who is next,” he groaned.