Police shot dead my son in the house - Witness

Accra, July 9, GNA - The National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) was on Wednesday told another sad story of a 20 year-old boy, Kwabena Asomani, who was shot dead by policemen during curfew hours on June 12, 1984 while on his mother's porch at Nkawkaw in the Eastern Region.

Madam Dora Anane, mother of the deceased who could not control her tears, told the commission that though her son sought refuge on the porch after being chased by the policemen, the policemen went ahead and shot at him three times resulting in his intestines gushing out.

She said the three policemen, one of whom she mentioned as "Obortuo", literally meaning (one who fires a gun) could have used another means to punish her son rather than to shoot and kill him. Madam Anane said her trauma was worsened as nobody came out to help her to convey her son to the hospital despite her shouts for help.

She said she spent the night with her dead son and his four siblings in the same room until the next morning when she made a report to the police after which they came for the body. "I arranged and the body of my first son was buried the following day," she added.

Narrating why her son was found outside after 1800 hours when the curfew started, witness said Kwabena Asomani stayed with an uncle in a village near Nkawkaw after he stopped schooling because "the classroom was not good for him."

Madam Anane said because of the remoteness of the village her son did not know there was a curfew.

She said her late son decided to visit her at Nkawkaw on that fateful day and ran into the police.

Madam Anane said her son managed to run to her porch and was trying to force the trap door open when the three policemen started firing at him. The third bullet hit his stomach making his intestines to gush out.

She said Kwabena Asomani did not commit any crime and it was unfair for the policemen to kill him.

General Emmanuel Erskine, a member of the commission noted that firing at the boy three times to kill him in his home was not acceptable adding that the training of policemen who maintained internal security needed to be looked at again.

He said he wondered why a board of enquiry was not instituted to investigate the case and said lessons must be learnt from these mistakes.

Uborr Dalafu Labal II, also a Commissioner, said investigations showed that "Obortuo" who shot Kwabena Asomani resigned from the Police Service in 1995.

He said 'Obortuo" whose name is Emmanuel Kwabena Ofori died at Suhum in the Eastern Region in July 2000.