2 Arrested at Adjei Kojo for obstructing police

By: Benjamin Xornam Glover / Daily Graphic / Ghana | Wednesday, 19 February 2014

Two persons have been arrested by a joint police and military team for allegedly attempting to protect their makeshift structures and tents at Promise Land, near Adjei Kojo. The team had gone to clear debris from the area where a demolition exercise had taken place recently. The suspects, John Asemso and Famous Gamor, who lived in makeshift structures and tents provided by the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), were subjected to severe beatings before they were bundled into a vehicle and sent to a camp near the site of the demolition exercise. Displaced people of the recent demolition exercise had converged on the demolition site for a scheduled meeting with the Parliamentary Select Committee on Works and Housing. About 10 a.m. and out of the blue, military and police personnel armed to the teeth and with two bulldozers and debris removal trucks descended on the displaced people and started destroying their mounted tents and makeshift structures on the site. Confrontation Out of anger and pain, some of the displaced people confronted the armed security personnel in an attempt to stop them, resulting in heated arguments and fisticuffs. In the process, some angry women marched straight to one of the policemen, wrapped their arms around the collar of his uniform and slammed him to the ground. That infuriated one of the soldiers, who spontaneously fired some rounds of warning shots in an attempt to disperse the crowd. Mr Amedzro, who was standing nearby, was arrested and subjected to severe beatings. He was hit with the butt of a rifle, whipped with a stick and given some hefty slaps before being conveyed to the security camp in a police jeep. Mr Gammey, on the other hand, who was alleged to be capturing the scene on his mobile phone, was given a hot chase, apprehended, maltreated and shoved into a waiting jeep and driven to the camp. Officials from the Tema Office of NADMO who had gone to the site to distribute relief items to the displaced people had to flee the scene in the heat of the exchanges. At exactly 12 noon, the security men clearing the debris stopped the exercise and retreated amidst boos and jeers from residents of the area. Undue harassment Some of the displaced people who spoke to the Daily Graphic said they were being harassed unduly but maintained that they would not give in to that form of intimidation . "We will never give in to this form of terror,” Mr Lawrence Mensah, a victim, said. “You cannot invite us for a meeting with our Members of Parliament only to be greeted with this show of brute force by the state-funded security apparatus. I think we are being unfairly treated,” another victim, Madam Rose Adutwumwaa, said. Mr Gershon Doe, who sustained bruises as a result of an attack by the security men, said he had approached the security team to ask them to spare some cement blocks that he had packed aside on his land. He said while talking to one soldier, another soldier approached and in an angry tone ordered him to move back. “They started beating me with sticks and the butt of the gun and I had to run as fast as my feet could carry me,” he said At the time of filing this report, members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Works and Housing who were scheduled to visit the site to investigate the demolition exercise had not arrived, but the displaced people maintained they would wait for them. Writer’s email: benjamin.glover@graphic.com.gh http://graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/17894-2-arrested-at-adjei-kojo-for-obstructing-police.html http://graphic.com.gh/debris-at-adjei-kojo.html