The commercial (trotro) driver and his conductor accused of assaulting a police officer are alleged to have been tortured in police custody, and are currently said to be in critical condition at Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) cells.

The left eye of the driver, Francis Buabeng, is “almost damaged” and has been left with bad ear due to continuous slaps and severe beatings from the police officer the driver and his mate allegedly assaulted.

Buaben and his mate, Albert Ansah, face a possible erectile problems as the police officer whose name has not been given, allegedly stepped countless times on the pelvic and scrotum of the two in the course of the torturing.

Executive Secretary of COPEC Duncan Amoah revealed this to 3news.com after visiting the accused persons in BNI cells Friday together with lawyers and officials from Amnesty International Ghana and Human Rights Advocacy Centre.

According to Mr Amoah, the driver and the mate recounted their ordeal happened on Monday after the Wieja Circuit Court remanded them into police custom.

After the court proceedings, he said the police officer at the centre of the casse apprehended driver and the mate “in handcuffs in custody and subject[ed] them to severe beatings and torture and grave abuses”.

He said it was after the torture incident that the two were transferred from police custody to BNI custody, where he said “they have been relatively safer and well treated including being given some drugs by the good officers at the BNI”.

“The BNI has done its best so far since they were moved there,” he stated.

He said lawyers of the two accused persons are “working around the clock” to ensure that the two are granted bail within the shortest possible time for them to seek immediate medical attention as “their conditions are deteriorating by the hour”.



Background

Buabeng and Ansah, were arrested last week after they were captured in video exchanging blows with a uniformed police officer at a bus stop around Weija in Accra.

Reports suggest the driver jumped red light and was pursued by the officer on a motorbike to a bus stop where the officer allegedly assaulted the driver who also got down from the mini bus to retaliate in similar manner.

They were arrested and put before the Weija Circuit Court on Monday without legal representation, and remanded into police custody to appear again April 1.

HRAC, which resolved on Wednesday to offer legal services to the two could not trace the whereabouts of the accused person as the various police stations they visited, including the Police CID headquarters claimed not to have them in their custody.

HRAC said Thursday that though the Odorkor District Police claimed to have transferred the two from their custody to the police headquarters in Accra, officials at the headquarters also denied receiving the accused persons.

This caused HRAC to write to demand the whereabouts of the two from the Ghana Police Service, the IGP and the Police CID.

Subsequent to that letter, the Police CID invited HRAC as well as Amnesty International Ghana which also joined calls for the two accused persons to be produced, into a meeting Friday at which they were informed the two have been transferred to BNI custody.

The Police CID was said to have explained in the meeting that they transferred the two accused persons to BNI custody for their own security.