Regional Report: 3 officers in Sekwa interdicted over alleged beating to death of suspect

Correspondence from Bono East:

Three police officers at Seikwa in the Bono Region have been interdicted on the orders of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), James Oppong-Boanu.

The interdiction of the officers follows the suspected beating to death and secret burial of a 48-year-old man, Abu Mepaa who was in police custody.

The officers have been identified as;

Read full articleChief Inspector Eric Aforo, General Corporal William Akussung, and General Constable Ebenezer Akuffo.
The interdiction of the officers is to pave way for proper investigations to be conducted into the matter.

According to the Bono Regional Crime Officer, Superintendent Kennedy Adusei, preliminary investigations by the Bono Regional Police Command proved that the officers were complicit in the death of the suspect.

“It must be on record that we had information that one Abu Mepaa aged 48 years has been brutalised by the police and buried secretly at Seikwa… so my Regional Commander on hearing this dispatched a team of investigators to the area and lo and behold we were able to get in touch with some of the opinion leaders and community members who confirmed that deceased prior to his death smashed the windscreen of the Nkonaman Rural Bank Manager in the person of Mr. Ofori Ebenezer.

“When this happened, the security personnel of the bank attacked and beat this guy mercilessly and when they realised he was getting weak, they rushed him to the police station and the police rearrested him. Later we had information that he fell sick they rushed him to the Seikwa health service end”.
Superintendent Kennedy Adusei emphasised that the officers “erred” as it is standard policing for police officers to send the body to the morgue for preservation and autopsy when such cases happened but the officers acted otherwise.

Meanwhile, the family of the deceased have described the actions of the officers as barbaric.