Police brutality again!

Officers at the Odorkor Police Station in Accra, are said to be working around the clock to settle on the quiet an alleged police master-minded brutality carried out against a 22-year-old plumber, Stephen Abeeku Hackman of Kwashie-bu on March 26, this year, at the Odorkor Police Station.

Chronicle gathered that as part of their efforts to have the matter settled to stop the victim from going public, the authorities have given him an amount of ?1million and a hospital form to cool his anger after which an amicable solution would be found.

This development came about, according to Chronicle sources, after the paper had approached the police personnel alleged to be involved in the brutality on Abeeku a day after the incident.

Abeeku was said to have been beaten up by personnel station at the charge office following his refusal to enter the cell, because according to him, the police had not at the time charged him with any crime.

According to Abeeku who came to the office of the Chronicle on Wednesday, last week, with swollen hands and bandaged chest to narrate his ordeal, he was carried to the station following a dispute between him and a girl on one hand and five other boys on the other.

He said, it all started as he was returning home from work about a month ago at 1:00pm when he met five boys alleged to have gotten drunk at a nearby drinking spot harassing a lady who Chronicle later gathered was his friend.

He managed to separate the lady from the boys and took her home. He said after some few minutes with the lady at home, she decided to go outside to make a telephone call where- upon, the five boys came back to attack her again.

Abeeku explained that in an attempt to cool tempers down, the boys got annoyed and turned their rage on him.

Based on this, the lady threatened to report the incident to the police but the boys who would not budge retorted that they would rather go to jail since they have been staying in the house for a long period.

Abeeku further said that two of the boys attacked him, which later led into a fierce fight in which both parties sustained some injuries.

After some weeks, he continued, matters were settled amicably between him and the boys by both parents and the lady withdrew the case from the police station.

But three weeks later, he said, he came back from work one evening to meet a letter requesting him to report at the Police Station, to which he obliged, not knowing the reason for the invitation was that he had been reported at the station as someone who normally goes about telling people he is a policeman in the area.

Abeeku lamented that as soon as he got there he was asked to see one Inspector Aryeh who informed him that he was being charged with assault based on a complaint that was brought against him by parents of the guys he was involved in the fight with.

He was asked to write a statement but because he cannot write, he was told that he was being taken to an officer who would help him write his statement. But to his surprise, after he had stayed waiting on the officer for almost five hours and requested for permission to go and urinate, he was then directed to go and urinate in the cell.

According to him, at this end, he refused because he was not being charged as a criminal and could not go into the cell.

This, he said, infuriated the Sergeant at the counter who was to see to it that he got into the cell and with the help of other colleague officers he beat him up mercilessly using both guns and padlocks on him.

When Chronicle contacted the Station Officer at the Odorkor Police Station, Mr. D.D. Abayah, he confirmed that indeed Abeeku was involved in a struggle with the officers on the said day after he was brought there to be put on remand by Inspector Aryeh, but he could not tell what charges were brought against him.

He noted that it was at this juncture that he refused an attempt by the police to force him into the cell which led to the struggle that led to him being wounded in that manner. But he was quick to add that it was not the Police intention to inflict pains on him.

The matter is, however, being handled by the victim’s lawyer who is now seeking the intervention of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) should the Regional Commander fail to address what he described as unwarranted, savage brutality against his client.