Killer cop back at post

A Police Constable who beat an ex-policeman to death in broad day light at the parade grounds of the Kaneshie police station is back to duty, two months after the incident.

Surprisingly, Constable Wisdom Sarpeh, who was granted bail after two weeks detention, is now fully armed with an AK 47 riffle and is currently at post with the Dansoman divisional police task force.

Enquiries at both the Dansoman and Kaneshie Police Stations confirmed that the murder suspect cop, who was a protective unit officer with the Kaneshie police station, was transferred to the Dansoman divisional task force after the incident.

Incognito calls from Chronicle staff posing as relatives of the police constable to both police stations yesterday morning confirmed that Constable Sarpeh was indeed involved in a murder case and was transferred from one station to another after the incident

The head of the police Public Relations department, Superintendent Angwubutoge Awunu, ,told Chronicle the transfer was purely administrative and had nothing to do with the unfortunate incident.

He confirmed the homicide yesterday afternoon after he called for Constable Sarpeh’s file, and added that the case had been referred to the Attorney-General’s department for advice.

Some police personnel who spoke with the Chronicle on anonymity are not happy with the fact that the murder suspect cop is still at post.

“We cannot believe this police officer is back at work after what he did”, an eyewitness cop told this paper.

According to eye witness accounts, in the morning of July 25 this year, a quarrel ensued between Constable Sarpeh, then a protective officer with the Kaneshie Police Station and Ali Nyarley, a police officer who had been dismissed from the service.

The deceased, according to sources was a police officer who had been dismissed from the service in the early nineties and had since been squatting at the Kaneshie police station for wont of accommodation.

Chronicle gathered that the late Nyarley after vacating the barracks upon dismissal spent the nights in abandoned vehicles at the police station.

Eyewitnesses said other police officers intervened during the morning quarrel and both the victim and Constable Sarpeh went away in anger.

With anger still burning in him, Constable Sarpeh approached the late Nyarley later in the day and confronted him over some insults he alleged the deceased had rained on his parents during the morning encounter.

Tempers flared again and this time, the two men started fighting, Chronicle learnt.

According to eyewitnesses, during the fight, the police constable broke the branch of a tree behind the C.I.D building, with which he whipped the late Nyarley.

Feeling let down, Nyarley reportedly stabbed the left arm of Constable Sarpeh who grew angrier, picked a wood plank which was then laying at the scene and mercilessly attacked the older man till he fell unconscious.

Sensing danger, Constable Sarpeh carried the deceased into a hired taxi cab and rushed him to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Sarpeh, Chronicle learnt, was detained the same day and released on bail two weeks later.

Reports reaching this paper indicate that there were attempts to settle the issue amicably between the family of the deceased and that of the cop, but witnesses, some of whom are policemen, protested against the idea, insisting that the rule of law should not be subverted.

A police officer who spoke with this paper on condition of anonymity said they protested against the out of court settlement because the incident occurred right at the Kaneshie police station and in the full view of other senior officers.

“Where the incident occurred showed that some of our colleagues have no respect for the service and our laws at all.

How can a police officer fight and murder a colleague in front of his superiors and right in front of a police station and expect to go free?”, a cop who spoke to Chronicle undercover team asked.