Dzodze police beat off mob attack

Aflao (V/R), Sept. 17, GNA - Reinforcement from nearby Aflao station enabled Dzodze Police to repell attempts by a mob from Wudoaba, about 10 kilometres from Dzodze, who attempted to vandalize the Police Station and vehicles.

The mob, armed with machetes, stones and sticks, besieged the station to avenge the alleged killing of a prominent citizen of the area by the Dzodze police.

The deceased was reportedly hit last Wednesday by a bullet fired by the police who were trying to deflate the tyres of the vehicle he was in.

Both the Dzodze Police and the Keta Divisional Police Command declined to comment when the Ghana News Agency contacted them.

A police source, however, told the GNA that the Police had several reports that the deceased, Justice Sede, alias Adidi, who hailed from Wudoaba, but lived in Togo, had stolen fuel from the dumps of the Great Lakes and Dredge Company, contractors on the Keta Sea Defence Project.

The source said Sede, who constantly outwitted the Police by changing routes, was on September 10, at about 0800 hrs spotted on the Aflao-Ho highway and refused to stop when ordered by the police to do so.

It said on the orders of Sede, the driver of the vehicle ignored the police order and sped off.

The police therefore, pursued and fired at the tyres of the vehicle but the bullets hit Sede, who was pronounced dead when he was rushed to the St. Anthony hospital at Dzodze.

The police source said the driver of the taxi fled and later reported himself to the Ho Police.

It said the police retrieved a 50-litre can filled with petrol and four empty containers from the vehicle.