Committee recommends transfer of 26 policemen from Twifo Atti Mokwa
The committee charged to investigate the Bimpong Egyya deaths has recommended that 26 police personnel of the Ghana Police Service who have stayed in the Twifo Atti Mokwa District for more than six years should be transferred.
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It also called for the transfer of the District Police Commander, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Nana Ofori, and recommended further that the 10 policemen who went on an operation at Bimpong Egya during which the deaths occurred should be transferred, for their own safety.
Presenting its report to the Central Regional Minister in Cape Coast on Monday, the committee called for disciplinary action to be taken against Lance Corporal Alexander Agbenu, who led the police team to Bimpong Egya for the operation and misled DSP Nana Ofori in their report on the event and number of ammunition used in the operation.
The Central Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Sarpong, set up the committee to investigate a police operation on illegal miners that led to the death of two persons in the River Pra two weeks ago and tasked it to submit its findings to the regional co-ordinating council in two weeks.
Its terms of reference were to establish the cause of the death of the two persons, look at whether there were gunshot wounds on the bodies of the dead and whether the operation was legal.
The report of the pathologist, Dr Patrick Kafui Akakpo of the Central Regional Hospital, indicated that there were no gunshots on the bodies of the deceased.
The cause of death, according to the pathologist’s report, was drowning.
Angered by the deaths of the two persons, the residents of Bimpong Egya attacked the police station at Twifo Praso and vandalised property.
According to the report, the pathologist’s report issued after the post-mortem examination of the bodies showed that none of the deceased was shot by the police but the police used firearms and pump action guns in the operations.
It recommended that the state should bear the cost of the burial, medical and funeral expenses, as well as pay some compensation to the spouses and children of the two deceased persons.
The Central Regional Director of the Bureau of National Investigation, Alhaji Malik Adams, presented the report.
By Shirley Asiedu-Addo/Daily Graphic/Ghana