IGP orders search for ‘caning policeman’ and victim
The Inspector General of Police, IGP Mr. James Oppong-Boanuh has directed the Accra Regional Police Commander to probe into the case of an elderly woman alleged to have been assaulted by a police man on Wednesday.
A viral video emerged Wednesday in which the woman, identified only as Madam Florence, was alleged to have been given two strokes of the cane by a police man for no apparent reason.
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She had gone to the market to buy tomatoes for sale in her stall, permissible under the lockdown regime in effect over Accra and Kumasi.
She claimed as she made her way to the lorry park with a head porter carrying her goods in tow, a police man ordered them to go back.
Madam Florence alleges that she turned to go back and called the head porter to follow suit, only to feel two sharp bites of the cane on her back, causing her to lose grip of the tomatoes she was carrying and spilling them, and when she turned, it was the policeman who had lashed her.
Supt. Mrs. Sheila Abayie-Buckman, Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service says the IGP wants the woman to be traced and listened to for evidence gathering and the offending officer identified.
She told Joy News: “It is unfortunate what happened to Madam Florence. In fact and indeed, when we saw the video yesterday the Inspector General of Police instructed (the) Accra Regional Commander to locate, to find whatever evidence can be found, to locate the woman to tell her story and if she points out to any of the security personnel having done that he should follow the lead to identify the police or the security officer.”
Supt. Sheila Abayie-Buckman said the processes have started and that the woman says she can identify the policeman in question.
“We know all the police officers who were detailed to duty at the point where the incident is purported to have happened,” she said.
Security men supervising the lockdown in effect in Accra and Kumasi and their environs to help curtail the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic were Wednesday seen wielding canes, amidst sporadic reports of lockdown offenders being lashed with the canes.