General News of Sunday, 6 October 2019

Source: thechronicle.com.gh

Torture victim pleads for attackers, but father arms himself for court battle

Lance Corporal Isaac Maafo with his colleague flogged Aglebe Dodzi Lance Corporal Isaac Maafo with his colleague flogged Aglebe Dodzi

Barely 48 hours after the Koforidua ‘torture chamber’ story broke, the victim, Aglebe Dodzi and his biological father, Aglebe Daniel are on collision course over the way the case should be handled.

Whilst the victim is pleading with the police top hierarchy to tamper justice with mercy, the father insists he will pursue the case at the court.

The Chronicle had reported yesterday that the two policemen at the centre of the torture allegation, General Sergeant Patrick Amoako and Lance Corporal Isaac Marfo, had gone to see a chief in Koforidua to plead with the victim on their behalf, after realising that they erred in the action they took against the victim.

But Aglebe Daniel, father of Dodzi, insisted that though he had great respect for the chief, who had been approached by police men to intervene, he would not listen to the chief and that the law must be allowed to take its own course.

Commenting on the trauma he went through in the hands of the two police officers for the first time on Dadi FM, an Nsawam based private radio station, Aglebe Dodzi, the victim, argued that despite suffering from severe body pains as a result of the torture, interdicting the two policemen or sacking them would rather deepen his emotions and pains and that they should be set free.

When he was asked whether he was pleading on behalf of his attackers because of outside pressure that has been brought to bear on him, he responded in the negative.

But the father of the victim told The Chronicle in a follow up interview that there was something wrong with his son.

To him, he does not see why the son should now be pleading for the policemen, looking at the way and manner he was tortured by them.

According to him, the family is in the process of contacting a lawyer to pursue the case and that they would not listen to what the victim is saying on air.

Meanwhile, the Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. James Oppong-Boanuh, has directed the immediate interdiction of the two Police officers stationed at Koforidua Railway Police station, who were identified in a viral video torturing a man in their custody, for allegedly stealing GH¢1,600.

The directive, which was contained in a statement issued by the Public Affairs Directorate of the Ghana Police Service, also urged.