Police Fire Shots in midst of children

Mr. Paul Tawiah Quaye is the Inspector General of Police in Ghana

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday October 26, 2010
There was near disaster at Russia, a suburb of Accra last Saturday when gun-wielding police men from the Dansoman Divisional Command besieged a house to forcibly eject tenants from it on the orders of one of the sons of the deceased land lord.

In the process, one of the trigger-happy policemen fired two warning shots in the midst of little children, causing panic in the area at about 4pm on October 23.

Two people, including a pregnant woman, sustained minor injuries when the police personnel used the butt of a gun to hit them.

The children in the house were visibly traumatized as a result of the ensuing commotion.

To make matters worse, when the two people (Mrs. Naomi Ashittey and Felix Dodoo) who were injured went to the Dansoman Police Station to lodge complaint, they were detained in police cells.

The police personnel, who had hidden their name tags, came in three unregistered vehicles and entered the house with the supposed claimant, Ebenezer Lankwei Bruce without any warrant and demolished the doors of the rooms.

There was also a KIA truck with registration GW 9841 Y, loaded with personal belongings which the policemen tried to forcibly discharge in one of the rooms, but to no avail.

They however managed to lock up one of the rooms.

When DAILY GUIDE visited the scene at 4:41pm the policemen had left with the cargo truck but the incident had attracted a lot of people.

Comfort Bruce, sister of the claimant, said the matter had been taken to court and was yet to be determined but her brother was using the police to intimidate them in order to possess the house.

She said their deceased father Albert Duke Bruce bequeathed the house to all 15 of his children and alleged that her brother promised to rent out the facility to the police without consulting them, hence the mayhem that was visited upon them.

Ms. Bruce said a writ of summons filed through their lawyer, Bright Akwetey, has not been responded to by their brother, adding that he continues to use the police to intimidate the rest of the family.