Correspondence from Eastern Region

The Akyemansa police in the Eastern Region are investigating clashes between four of its officers and the youth of Akyem Brenase which resulted in gunshot wounds to four persons, resulting in the death of one person.

27-year-old Emmanuel Kwabla died instantly with the three others including Frimpong Williams, aged 26 years and two others aged 26 and 23 years old respectively sustaining injuries.

The body of the deceased has been deposited at the Oda Government Hospital for preservation and autopsy whilst the injured are receiving treatment at the Eastern Regional Hospital and the New Abirem Hospital.

Narrating circumstances that led to the shootings, the Police Commander in charge of the Akyemanse Police Command, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) William Nsiah told GhanaWeb that four of his men had responded to an emergency call from the Kontihene of Kotokum, a nearby community and were returning around 4:30 pm when they were accosted by an angry youth at Brenase.

“Yesterday in the evening, the Kontihene of Kotokuom, a town after Brenase called the patrol team to come because the chief was having issues with some youth within the town and they wanted police to intervene,” the Commander said.

It was upon the return of the patrol team that, according to DSP William Nsiah, they were accosted by an angry youth armed with weapons who demanded the blood of a member of the team who they said was engaged in a brawl with the youth of the community.

“So they went and when they were returning, these young men numbering about twenty, armed with weapons, cutlasses and other things attacked the police that the previous day, an incident happened between a policeman who was on board the car and the youth and that they saw him inside the car and for that matter, they wanted to bring him down and lynch him,” he narrated further.

The incident, he said, generated chaos, resulting in the warning shots and the casualties recorded.

“So the warning shots [began] then later the gun went down because the people were more than the police and that incident happened.

The Police Commander said the youth of Brenase, prior to the incident had turned the community into a “no go area” for police officers and fought the police off on any impending arrests in the area.

“The young men at Brenase where the incident happened, they have decided to turn the place to a no go area that any policeman who goes there to effect arrest they attack you, either when you have been able to sustain the arrest, they attack you and take the person from you or whatever.”

He however said “preliminary investigations” have begun into the case pending further directions from the Divisional and Regional Police Command.

Assemblyman for Akyem Brenase Electoral Area, when contacted, however had a different story. Matthew Kwadjo Adagba in an interview with GhanaWeb said the police fired the warning shots when pursuing an unidentified suspect they saw at Brenase when returning from Kotokuom.

“They [police] were returning and upon reaching our community, they saw a suspect that they had a case with so they decided to arrest the boy so they fired warning shots to prevent the suspect from escaping, resulting in the four people being shot,” he said.

He accused the police of assault and unlawful detention in police cells for about an hour and half when he went to the police station to enquire from the police the circumstances that led to the shootings, adding that it took the intervention of the District Chief Executive for Ofoase Ayirebi, Paul Asamoah to secure his release.

“I was called that people are dying, they are killing people and so on my way, I saw them rushing to the clinic so I also did a follow-up and when I reached there I realized that people were in cold blood so I decided to go and ask the police what really happened…I was detained and I was even beaten that they don’t understand why I had come there,” the Assemblyman told GhanaWeb.