Dansoman Police Shooting Victims

I am reminded of Lydia ?Awo? Poku and Attaa Boatemaa each time I read news from Ghana lately. I am related to both of them through marriage, and I knew them well. Many questions remain unanswered regarding their untimely death.

I want to commend the Inspector General of Police for instituting an investigation into the entire sad affair. I hope the findings from the investigation will be made public at the appropriate time.

Lydia was a kind and hardworking woman with impeccable character. The name ?Awo? described her very well; she was very nurturing and always ready to help wherever needed.

Attaa was also very kind and hardworking. She was of extremely good character with a strong sense of fairness. Whenever I had difficulty with a project I was trying to complete in Ghana, Attaa would offer to work on my behalf to resolve whatever the problem was and she always did.

There are many questions that I hope the investigation will answer in order to arrive at the truth of what really happened. Four of the potential witnesses are dead so the investigation will have to be very thorough and unrelenting to uncover the truth.

The investigation will have to uncover whether the police were just doing their job with limited training and resources or if in fact they were perpetrators of a robbery that ended in the murder of four innocent people.

It should not come as a surprise to anyone that some Ghanaians at home and abroad believe a few bad elements in the security forces engage in criminal activities such as armed robberies. The authorities should spare no effort to clean up the police force if that is found to be required.

Some questions that come to mind and should be addressed by the formal investigation are:

a. Were all the police officers involved in this shooting supposed to be on duty at the time of the shooting incident or were they patrolling in a taxi on their own time?

b. What was the sequence of events on that fateful day? Who dispatched the police officers to patrol in a taxi and how did they end up chasing and trying to flag down the car with the ladies and the other two people in it?

c. Have any of police officers involved in this chase and shooting ever been involved in any incidents similar to this shooting?

d. What happened to the money that the ladies were alleged to be carrying at the time of the shooting?

e. Was there any effort to convey the shooting victims who may have survived the shooting initially to hospital for care? If not why not?

There are many more questions than this space would allow but I am sure the investigating authorities would leave no stone un-turned to arrive at the truth. The victims deserve the truth, the surviving family members deserve the truth and the nation deserves the truth.

Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.