Banku meal provokes father

Dad orders cops to shoot son

Acting upon instructions of a father, a police man detailed to guard the Nsoatre Palace on Saturday May 13, shot the legs of the son, for eating his food, a portion of banku (cooked corn dough) because he does not help with house chores.

Mr. Nsiah Amankwah, a retired educationist instructed the police to shoot his son because he saw no reason why the boy should have eaten his banku, as he never helped with duties he is expected to perform..

The victim, Atta Yaw, currently on admission at the Regional Hospital, Sunyani, sustained two gun shots on his legs because he was allegedly resisting arrest.

In an interview with the victim, he told The Chronicle that he and his father, Mr. Nsiah, had a quarrel over banku and the older man had decided to report to the police.

Atta Yaw revealed it was just after he had rested that two policemen came to the house to arrest him.

He narrated that the policemen knocked on his door and when he asked to know who it was, they replied that they had come to arrest him over the quarrel he had had with his father over banku.

He said he also replied that he did not have anything to do with the police and that he would not come out. He told the paper that the police at this point became infuriated and struck the door with the gun butt, forcing it opened.

Atta Yaw narrated that at this point, he decided to leave the room, but just as he reached the door, one of the policemen asked him to drop a sack needle he was holding, which he refused to do.

He explained that he was going to the market to seal some maize sacks and for that matter he had no time to listen to the police.

He also told the paper he tried to know from the police where they were coming from, as their faces were not familiar around the Nsoatre town, to which they replied they were detailed to guard the Nsoatre Palace.

Atta hinted that here, he told them that since they were not from the Nsoatre police station, he would not go, but the police, as he narrated insisted that they would arrest him.

He said the policemen in mufti asked Mr. Nsiah what to do about his son, who still insisted he would not be arrested, and the father told the men to do whatever they deemed appropriate.

Immediately, one of the policemen carrying a gun, shot at his right leg. Fortunately for him, the bullet did not hit his bone but paralysed him.

?Here, I asked my father, ?So, are you standing here asking the police to kill me???

Again, Atta disclosed to The Chronicle that the policemen enquired from his father what to do next, whereupon he had replied, ?whatever you feel like doing?.

Atta said, ?Immediately after my father?s reply, the policeman fired another shot that hit my left leg, which rendered me completely helpless,? adding that ?After they succeeded in smashing my legs, they then asked onlookers, who were earlier pleading with them to let me go, to lift me into a vehicle, and these onlookers impressed upon them to take me to the hospital.?

When the police was contacted, the Sunyani District Police Commander, Chief Supt. C.T. Yohuno, confirmed the incident, saying the two police officers were not stationed at Nsoatre, but Duayaw Nkwanta and Berekum Divisions, but were brought to Nsoatre to guard the chief?s palace, because of the protracted chieftaincy dispute in the town.

According to Chief Supt. Yohuno, he had instructed the station officer at Nsoatre to investigate the matter and take down the statements of the two policemen.

He told The Chronicle that the station officer hinted him about the incident, whilst he was at the Coronation Park last Sunday, and he quickly instructed that the station officer rushed to the hospital to see the condition of the victim.

The District Commander said that further investigations have to be made to know who fired the gun so that action could be taken on the matter.

According to Chief Supt. Yohuno, the policeman might be defending himself as he was sometime ago stabbed at Yamfo and as Atta was holding the sack needle, he might have thought that he was after his life.

The father of the victim, was offended because Atta had taken his banku, leaving him hungry, and he had to chase him to a nearby ?pito? bar, where Atta had gone to buy some pork to match the banku.

Eyewitnesses disclosed to The Chronicle that ?father and son? struggled over the banku, until it fell down, but the father, Mr. Nsiah would not leave it on the ground.

He was said to have taken it home to wash neatly and asked the daughter to grind some pepper for him.

Atta, who did not understand his father?s action followed up to the house to attack his father and later went to his room to take some rest.

After the father had eaten the banku, he went and reported the incident to the policemen, hence the action.