The family of a 23-year-old man, Mr Thomas Narteh Partey, who was shot dead by the police at Odawnor near Agormanya in the Lower Manya Krobo municipality in the heat of the chaos that erupted over exorbitant electricity bills in that part of Ghana, have issued an ultimatum to the Ghana Police Service to furnish them with a report on the death of their son ahead of the intended funeral slated for this weekend or face their wrath.

The family said if by Friday, 12 July 2019 the police service fails to accede to their demand, they will be forced to take drastic decisions to draw public and national attention to their grievance.

According to the family, though they have officially written two letters (dated 10th and 24th June 2019) to the District Commander of the Ghana Police Service at Odumase-Krobo and subsequently to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) in Accra requesting an update on the investigations into the incident, the Ghana Police Service has treated their requests with scorn.

The head of the family, Mr Winfred Sam Partey, said: “We wrote to officially request for the police report and were made to pay GHS80 for the processing of the said report one month ago but we have not been communicated to and all efforts to follow up have yielded no result…”.

“Our son was harmless and yet he was brutally murdered; we remained calm and have chosen to cooperate with the service but our peaceful posture is being taken for granted. We won’t hesitate to convey the corpse to the police station if the Police Service continues treating our simple request for the report with contempt. One whole month after putting in an official request and paying for it, the service has not even acknowledged receipt of the letter let alone furnished us with the report to enable us to take a decision on the funeral and burial rites of our beloved son. We feel pushed to the wall…”, Mr Partey stated.

Mr Partey was shot by the police on Wednesday, 22 May 2019, when some residents of the Lower Manya Krobo municipality took to the streets to protest a police-assisted mass disconnection exercise by Power Distribution Service (PDS) Ghana Limited.

Armed police officer shot live bullets indiscriminately at the demonstrators, instantly killing the young man and injuring several others including an 18-year-old junior high school pupil (a candidate of the just-ended BECE) Ruth Mankattah and a 41-year-old farmer, Kortey Tetteh.

Ruth’s right leg, which was hit by a bullet, was subsequently amputated after spending several weeks on admission at the St. Joseph Orthopedic Hospital in Koforidua. Mr Tetteh was, however, treated and discharged. He is presently nursing a bullet wound in the thigh which has rendered him immobile.