General News of Monday, 23 July 2018

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Midland Saga: Beaten woman was not aggressive – Witness gives account

The witness chastised the media for peddling false information about the incident to the public. play videoThe witness chastised the media for peddling false information about the incident to the public.

It was a chaotic scene at Midland Savings and Loans Monday morning when some agitated customers stormed the premises of the Shiashie branch to demand their monies.

Their action follows a recent incident where a police man was captured in a video assaulting a customer.

Contrary to speculations that the woman, who was attacked by the police man at the Midland Savings and Loans company for allegedly over staying her welcome at the institution, was aggressive for which reason she was ‘punished’, a customer who was present during the confrontation has stated otherwise.

Reports from some media houses suggested that the victim was aggressive and refused to vacate the premises after several warnings from the staff hence the harsh response from the police man.

However, a customer who spoke to www.ghanaweb.com at the scene stated that such allegations were false.

He chastised the media for peddling false information about the incident to the public.

Giving his account, he stated that Ms Osafo was at the financial institution from morning until closing time which was around 4:00pm and yet was denied access to her money.



According to him, the woman who had a baby with her was very calm while waiting to be attended to but was completely ignored. What worsened the situation he explained, was how unperturbed staff of the company seemed.

“When there is an issue, they do not come to the people involved. They sit at their radio stations and say whatever they want. Some of the media personal assumed that the woman exhibited an aggressive behavior which is not true,”

“Were they here when the incident happened?” he asked rhetorically.



Another witness who met victim at the banking hall said she was rather calm and was hoping to get the money to buy food for the crying baby.

“I met her on that fateful day. I got my money but because of her calm nature she was being tossed by the unperturbed staff while waiting in the ‘freezing’ office. ”

To him, the media, instead of making assumptions should investigate the matter and report the truth.



Meanwhile the police has called for calm advicing the customers not to take the laws into their hands.



"What we are expecting, as we have said that tomorrow the banking hall will be opened it should really be opened so that work will go on smoothly and nothing untoward happens. Because if they come and it is not opened that is where the problem is. But tomorrow we will also bring personnel here to calm things down," Kwadwo Asante, Divisional Commander, Airport.