Khebab seller?s ordeal with the BNI

 

The Ghanaian Chronicle reports that on May 4, this year two men in plain clothes approached John Abelma, a 24-year-old khebab seller at the Ghana Institute of Journalism in Accra and asked him to accompany them to the headquarters of the Ghana Police Service.

The Chronicle says Abelma, a native of the Upper East Region, obliged but as they headed for the Police Headquarters in a taxi, the two unknown men ordered the driver to take them instead to the offices of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) near the 37 Military Hospital.

The paper says at that point Abelma enquired about their mission, but the answer he received was that he was under arrest. The Chronicle says Ablema, who was narrating this story to the paper last week told of his ordeal with the BNI. According to him the BNI officers insisted that he declare his political affiliation, and when he asked them what his arrest had to do with politic, they ordered him to take them to his house for a search. He said he complied with their request and during the search, they found his NPP membership card which they took away. After the search, he was sent to the BNI offices near the 37 Military Hospital and detained from morning until late evening when they accompanied him to find someone to stand bail for him. The Chronicle says sad-looking Abelma told the paper that it was when he was about to be granted bail that he was asked to write a sort of statement that he had been accused of possessing a ten thousand-cedi note, which was not even in circulation in Ghana.





Abelma, according to the paper, said his decision to report the case stemmed from the fact that the BNI





wanted to frame him.