The people at Sege-Luhour, a community in the Ada West District, have run into deep trouble and might now be regretting their action of beating up some police officers and seizing their guns.
The police officers reportedly had gone to the place with surveyors.
The people had spotted the surveyors near the community’s school and they became agitated, rushed there only to see some police officers’ sitting in the vehicle parked by the surveyors at the school.
The police officers were said to be wearing face covering. The angry crowd demanded that the officers removed their face covering to enable them to see their faces, something the police officers would not accept to do.
The police officers were said to have started making frantic calls on their cell phones for reinforcement and that incensed the people. A struggle then ensued – the helpless police officers, outnumbered and outmatched, were roughed up and the guns they were carrying, seized from them by the people.
When word got to the assembly member for the area, Mr. Isaac Gbenartey, he quickly run to the place. Aware of the likely consequences of the ill-advised action of the people, he made desperate efforts to persuade the people to return the seized guns of the police officers.
He was however, unsuccessful. The people either because of foolhardiness or sheer stupidity or both, stubbornly refused to hand the weapons back to the police officers.
The response of the police in such situations, is predictable – it was swift, sharp and decisive.
Twenty-four hours after the attack and seizure of the police guns, the community was put under siege.
Thirty-eight (38) people in the community have been arrested by the Tema Regional Police Command. The seized guns have also been recovered from those who were keeping them.
The people in the community have accused the police of brutalizing them but that has been discounted by the regional police command.
Superintendent Kwabena Otuo Acheampong, the Tema Regional Crime Officer, flatly denied any excesses by the police but confirmed the arrest of the 38 people.
The incident highlights the problems associated with the country’s land administration system. The troubles people go through to acquire land to build residential accommodation – instances where the same land is sold to multiple developers.
Content created and supplied by: KyeretwienanaOseiBonsu (via Opera News )
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