Wa, Sept.3, GNA - Mr Mahmud Khalid, Upper West Regional Minister, has inaugurated a seven-member Committee to investigate brutalities the Police meted out to the people of Gwollu in Sissala District during which a Policeman shot a man.

The Committee, which has Mr Jacob M. Bagonluri, a Peace Promotion Officer, as its Chairman would look into the causes of the incident and any other related issues and make recommendations as to how the problem could be resolved amicably to re-establish the good relationship between the community members and the Police in the area. It has two weeks to present its reports to the Upper West Regional Security Council (REGSEC).

Mr Khalid urged the Committee members to work diligently and impartially and to come out with accurate report on the disturbances to help to restore lasting peace. He advised them to work independently and disassociate their investigations from other individuals or groups of people, who might have also carried out similar investigations into the same incident.

Mr Bagonluri pledged that the Committee would do its work dispassionately and appealed for logistics such as a means of transport to facilitate the movement of the members from Wa to Gwollu to carry out their duties.

On August 11 2009, Mr Haruna Basiparimu, a Security Man at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, was shot and wounded by a Policeman at Gwollu over a mobile phone. Mr Basiparimu, who was in Gwollu to bury his brother, whose body he had brought from Kumasi, was shot in his shoulder and he is on admission at the Wa Regional Hospital.

He told the GNA that on August 9 Mr Yahaya Nasara, a Night Watchman, picked a mobile phone at the Gwollu market square, and gave it to his younger brother, Zubeiru Nasara, with instruction to direct whoever called on the phone to their house to identify and collect the phone and left the house.

Not quite long after someone called and Zubeiru directed the caller to the house. She turned out to be one Miss Alimatu Hasimiru, who claimed ownership of the phone.

Zubeiru told her to come back later to collect the phone from his elder brother, Mr Nasara, who had gone out but she did not take kindly to this.

Mr Basiparimu said Miss Hasimiru reported the encounter to her boyfriend, one Paul, who is a Policeman at Gwollu. The next morning Paul's, friend one Seidu, allegedly led three Policemen to the house and asked of Zubeiru, who had gone to his garden that morning.

Mr Basiparimu said Zubeiru was picked up from his garden and beaten up and his cries for help attracted some young men to the scene, who pleaded with the Police to stop the brutalisation. The Police seized the phone from Zubeiru and went away with it. The young men went to the Gwollu Kuoru, Kuri Buktie Limann and the District Chief Executive, Mr Robert W. Baka to lodge a complaint about the misbehaviour of the Police.

The Security Man said on August 11 the Police surrounded the market square section of Gwollu and broke down doors of houses, molested the occupants and arrested four young men. The four were forced into a Police car and when he, Mr Basiparimu, came out to see what was happening, he allegedly heard an order by one Ambrose Obeng to the Policemen "shoot him he is a dangerous man and they shot at me".

He said he fell to the ground and the Policemen dragged him on the ground to where their car was and lifted him into the car. Mr Basiparimu said he was taken to Tumu District Hospital, where the Police announced to the people that he was an armed robber but the Hospital authorities transferred him to the Wa Regional Hospital. He said the misbehaviour of the Police caused agitation among the young men, who started to mobilise for a clash with the Police and but for the timely intervention of the Gwollu Kuoru and the DCE there would have been a bloodbath in Gwollu. Police reinforcement was sent to Gwollu to maintain the peace.

The Regional Minister, Mr Mahmoud Khalid, the Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Alex Bedie, together with members of the Upper West Regional Security took turns to plead with the people to forgive and forget about what had happened and to re-establish good relationship with the Police. Mr Khalid appealed to the people to put the past behind them and to build good relationship with the Police, saying: "Don't be discouraged. There is the need for you and the Police to co-exist peacefully to sustain peace at all times." ACP Bedie appealed to the Police to always act or react professionally in whatever situation they found themselves. 3 Sept. 09