Chaos in Somanya: Residents attack Police station

Thousands of residents of Somanya, who descended on the local police station yesterday, took police personnel hostage, fired gunshots and freed suspects from cells.

A police vehicle with registration number GP 2605 was torched, as some cops remained glued in their offices unable to come out.

They were reacting to the arrest of Emmanuel Adamptey, a suspected ring leader of an earlier attack on the offices of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

The suspect is the assemblyman for the Sawer Electoral Area whose immediate release the irate youth demanded, but the police managed to transfer him to the Eastern Regional Police Headquarters in Koforidua.

By the time calm was restored, two rioters sustained gunshot wounds when the police fired live ammunition to disperse the irate crowd.

It took the arrival of a joint police and military reinforcement to restore normalcy in Somanya.

The angry mob who were infuriated by the transfer of the assemblyman to the Regional Police Headquarters, started firing gunshots and hurling stones at the police officers.

The mob also blocked roads in front of the police station and set tyres ablaze.

It would be recalled that residents of the town last Friday stormed the ECG building in the town and vandalized it after protesting high electricity bills.

The club and stick wielding youth were destructive, leaving in their trail vandalized state properties.

DAILY GUIDE gathered that the ECG installed new meters but failed to deliver bills monthly as they should have done leading to an accumulation of debts of close to two years or so.

When eventually ECG staff began delivering bills, some consumers were to pay monies ranging between GH¢1,000 and GH¢10,000 beyond their abilities even after being given an ultimatum of a week to settle the debts.

A subsequent disconnection led to disgruntlement and commotion.

The MP for the constituency Magnus Kofi Amoatey yesterday gave assurance that the arrested assemblyman would be released by the close of the day.

ASP Isaac Otsin, the Municipal Police Commander, who confirmed the arrest and subsequent events, said he was surprised the people resorted to lawlessness.

At the time of filing this report, Fire Service personnel had extinguished the fires which followed the riots.

DDO Ebenezer Djabatey, Municipal Fire Commander, said he received a distress call about fires in the general area of the police station and moved to put them out.