A brother of the victim in the Karimenga shooting incident is speaking out. Godwin Wuni spoke about the threats the family has been receiving at the hands of the police over the incident.
He said the family for the past few weeks have tried without success to see if the police will reimburse the family. This he added has attracted verbal threats and even abuse from the peace officers.
He narrated one of such instances when he spoke to Bolgatanga based A1 Radio.
“Simply because the matter was given to the media house, he [Upper East Regional Commander of the Ghana Police Service, DCOP Dr. Sayibu Pabi Gariba] said he felt disturbed and thus insulted me. He even told me in front of the chiefs that I am lucky the chiefs were there, he would have slapped me.”
“He said if I joked, he would let the boys come and beat me and throw me away. Even when my brothers were trying to talk, he shut them up. He called that the family should take me out of the case and bring another person to deal with him.”
Godwin Wuni continue;
“In fact the one who took the receipts to be given to the commander, he [my brother], chat with him and we did not get it easy. When our regent also told us to let our brother call them [the police] and find out what is happening, we told my brother and then he called. When he called, the policeman did not spare him. He was just insulting him for the purpose of involving the media in the case.”
“After the call, he [my brother], went there last week and it was still the same thing. They said they would not pay. He [the police officer in charge of the case] was asking him [my brother] whether he knows that the commander had been transferred.”
“They refused to pay because when they brought the receipts, they heard from the media that I was telling the media that they have not paid yet. [They asked] so what will the media do? They [the media] can only make noise but they cannot do anything.”
You will recall that in May this year, there were some disturbances at Karimenga, in the North East Region.
The disturbances resulted when a young lady was shot in the buttock by the police.
The Police indicated that the lady and a rider(who picked her) of a motorbike were suspected criminal elements.
This is what the Public Affairs Officer of the Upper East Regional Police Command, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), David Fianko-Okyere said in an interview with Dreamz FM.
“At about 5pm yesterday, the police detailed to man the checkpoint on the Bolga-Tamale road, at the section of the road known as the Karimenga snap checkpoint were attacked by the community members after the incident had occurred. The incident had to do with the suspicion of criminal movement and an accident that indeed occurred.”
“As the police were on duty, they observed an oncoming motor rider with a pillion rider. They crashed into the barricade as we have it to embark on stop-and-search. Now, when they crashed, the rider managed to flee the scene and the police suspected them to be criminal elements who are about to commit a crime somewhere. Because they saw the police with all the reflective materials, the police decided to immobilise them. A gunshot was fired and unfortunately, it hit the pillion rider who happens to be a lady. The victim was rushed to the regional hospital.”
It is the result of this incident which has lingered on til today, for which reason the family of the victim is accusing the police of issuing threats against them.
Attempts by A1 Radio to get the Upper East Regional Police Command, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), David Fianko-Okyere to respond to the allegations was not successful.
