Press Conference On The Police Shoot-And Kill Incident

ON FRIDAY 11TH DECEMBER AT SEFWI WIAWSO

Good Morning Ladies and gentlemen of the Press, we have invited you here this morning to express our grave alarm and distress about the shooting incident in Sefwi Wiawso on Friday 11th December 2009 during which a member of our family, Mr. Kofi Nkrumah, was shot dead by police officers.

Mr. Kofi Nkrumah, is our relative, and we are here representing the whole family.

Following the shooting of Mr. Nkrumah, the police of Sefwi Wiawso have sought, through blatant falsehoods and misinformation, to mislead the rest of the country regarding what is without doubt, a cold-blooded murder on the part of the police.

Ladies and gentlemen of the press, the purpose of this press conference is to present the facts, with incontrovertible evidence the events leading to the death of our relative and in the event, expose the fabrications put out, question the motivation of the police to tell lies in this matter, and request the government to conduct an independent, transparent enquiry into the affair and take the appropriate measures to restore peace and security in the Sefwi Wiawso traditional area. On the afternoon of Friday, 11th December 2009, a group of young people, in the company of Mr. John Chikah, one of the parties in the Sefwi Wiawso chieftaincy dispute, entered the living quarters attached to the palace through the eastern entrance. Our relative, Mr. Kofi Nkrumah, was among this group of young people. Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, We have verifiable eye witnesses, who will confirm to any enquiry that these young people were not armed with any weapons. They had no guns, machetes, offensive sticks or cudgels. According to reliable information, as they approached the living quarters, all that they were doing, were singing, drumming and dancing. All that some of them were carrying were drums. On arrival within the precincts of the living quarters, they continued with their drumming and dancing. While the drumming and dancing were taking place in the passageway, others were seated on a staircase that leads to a wooden barricade separating the living quarters from the main palace. Our information from verifiable eye witnesses is that, as Mr. Kofi Nkrumah approached one of the youth on the staircase who had called him, his mobile phone fell. As he bent low to retrieve his telephone, one of the policemen, located at some distance behind the wooden barricade, fired a shot, which smashed through the closed wooden barricade and hit Mr. Kofi Nkrumah. The bullet impacted on his forehead, towards the left eye. He did not survive.

Contrary to the claim by the police that Mr. Kofi Nkrumah “attacked one of the policemen guarding the palace in an effort to disarm him” which alleged attack, resulted in a gun “accidentally” going off and killing Mr. Nkrumah, there was no police officer in that section of the living quarters where Mr. Nkrumah and the other youth were located. The fact is that the police officers, including the one who shot Mr. Nkrumah, were located within the main palace and behind the ceiling-to-floor wooden barricade. He therefore could not physically have been at close quarters with any police officer. This claim. peddled by the police is pure fiction, deliberately concocted by the police command in Sefwi Wiawso to conceal the terrible crime that they committed that day.

It is also not true that “there were exchanges of gunshots between the police and the people” We have verifiable evidence that the youth were not armed with any form of weapon.

It is also false that the police gave warning shots before the shooting of Mr. Nkrumah. We have supportable evidence that it was only after the deadly shooting that the police started firing tear gas, not in the direction of the drumming youth, but towards the town centre in what could only be described as a celebratory performance. There might have been some firing of live ammunition in the process of firing tear gas.

We also have irrefutable evidence that before that momentous Friday, the Police Command in Sefwi Wiawso were alerted that a group of people were planning a march to the palace that day. One would have thought that any police command worth its sort would have taken preventive steps to deter the march. One option was to have taken the alleged leaders to court under the Public Order Act. Another option was to have shown a visible presence on the day to put off the marchers. The fact that the police failed to do either of these but rather chose to lay ambush within the inner perimeter of the palace and proceeded to shoot at people betrays a deliberate intention to shoot to kill.

Furthermore, the fact that the police proceeded thereafter to falsify the account of the events exposes a motive that they must be made explain. Among the fabrications of the police are the following:

1. That there were exchanges of gunshots between the police and the youth who entered the living quarters of the palace. We have witnesses who will testify that the youth did not have guns on them.

2. That our relative, Kofi Nkrumah, was shot in the midst of a struggle between him and a police officer. The truth is that he could not have wrestled with someone who was located behind a solid barrier. With the full and uncontestable evidence available to us, that the fatal bullet got lodged in his head, rather than make an exit, any ballistic examination of the autopsy report will conclude that the bullet came from a distance, and its impact was curbed by the wooden barricade that separated the deceased from the gun. If the gun had gone off at close quarters, the bullet would have exited through the head.

3. That the police “had so far seized three guns, retrieved three pellets and two empty cartridges in the course of the confusion” regarding the shooting of Mr. Kofi Nkrumah. We have already stated that we can lead evidence, with living eye witnesses, to show that the group was not armed with any guns. If the police claim that they seized three guns, they should tell the public from whom and where did they seize the alleged guns and where did they retrieve those phantom pellets.

We have four questions for the police of Sefwi Wiawso, and indeed the higher police administration,

1. Will they be able to produce forensic evidence to show any form of physical contact between Mr. Kofi Nkrumah and the police officer or his gun to back up their claim that there was a struggle between the two?

2. Will they be able to show the location of the alleged exchange of gunshots between the police and the youth and from where they claim to have retrieved cartridges?

3. Can they confirm whether they have arrested and put before court, any of the youth from whom the police claim to have “seized three guns”?

4. What is the nature of the offence that the youth committed, which could have made any of them deserve a death sentence?

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, while we are not here to justify or excuse the entry of the youth into the living quarters of the palace where the Queenmother and her family resides, we do not think that the entry of the place justifies a death sentence or even that the police should arrogate unto themselves, the powers of prosecutors, judges and executioners of any such verdict even if the youth are claimed to have committed an offence. This is so, especially when it cannot be shown that life or property was at risk at the time of the police shooting.

It is in view of the above that we the family of the deceased call on the government to institute without delay, a credible, independent and transparent enquiry into the shooting of our relative, Mr. Kofi Nkrumah on Friday 11th December 2009.

We cannot trust the police to investigate themselves in this matter since they have already resorted to lies to cover up their action. As we speak, a section of the youth in Sefwi Wiawso are being subjected to intimidation and harassment by the police. The police at Sefwi Wiawso are known to be involved in waylaying some of the youth in Bibiani-Kumasi road and subjecting them beatings. The higher police authorities are aware of these acts, and yet have done nothing to stop this bunch of police officers and their Command, who have become a law unto themselves in the Sefwi Wiawso area.

The government should, indeed, be concerned that we have a police force who, when they give warning shots, do not aim into the sky but fire at low angles.

The government must know that the security situation in Sefwi Wiawso is smoldering. The government must not wait until it turns into a conflagration. We need peace in Sefwi Wiawso.

In the meantime, we request the government to change the police command in Sefwi Wiawso, who appear to have tainted themselves in the on-going chieftaincy dispute in the area.

Thank you very much for coming. You may now ask questions.

Dated 21 December 2009.