Kumasi, July 15, GNA - Osei Yaw, alias Yaw Thomas who allegedly shot and killed Police Lance Corporal H. E. Sey last Friday, was remanded in prison custody on Wednesday, by a Kumasi Circuit Court for causing unlawful harm and murder.

Osei Yaw 23, whose plea was not taken, would re-appear on 30th July 2004.

The Policeman stationed at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Police Station died in the early hours of Friday, 9th July 2004, when he was allegedly shot in the mid-section with a locally manufactured gun.

Lance Corporal Sey, who was a member of a Police team detailed to arrest some suspects in a land case at Kotei near KNUST, was pronounced dead when he was rushed to the KNUST hospital.

Police Chief Inspector Regina Kesewaa, told the court presided over by Mr Ernest Yao Obimpeh that there had been a protracted land dispute between the families of one Yaw Broni who resides at Kotei and Nana Antwi, the Chief of Deduako, leading to clashes between the parties. She said, in one of the clashes, about two months ago, one Kwame Poku and Osei Kwaku, both drivers related to Yaw Broni, sustained severe cutlass wounds and made a report to the KNUST Police Station.

Chief Inspector Kesewaa said all efforts to arrest the suspects proved futile until 9th July 2004, when the late Lance Corporal Sey, together with personnel from the Police Buffalo Unit were detailed to arrest the suspect.

She said immediately the police alighted from their vehicle, the accused who was hiding in one of the houses in the area shot Corporal Sey and ran away, but was tracked to the Kumasi Race Course where he was about to board a vehicle to flee.

Chief Inspector Kesewaa said during interrogation, Osei Yaw alleged that he did not fire the gun that killed the policeman and said his junior brother who was on the run shot him.

She said a search in the rooms of some suspected land guards in the area led to the discovery of 17 live cartridges and a locally manufactured gun which had been seized by the Police.