General News of Friday, 10 March 2017
Source: Myjoyonline.com
2017-03-10
DCOP Ken Yeboah, Ashanti Regional Commander
Police in Kumasi has arrested a 27-year-old man believed to have played a major role in the assault of a taxi driver leading to his death at Nima, a suburb of Kumasi.
Earlier, they had said four faces identified in the video had escaped arrest but Nhyira News is informed one of them has been arrested.
Awudu Ibrahim accidentally knocked down a motor rider, who was treated and discharged same day at the Manhyia Hospital.
But the mob chased the taxi driver to a gas station and subjected him to severe beating until he became unconscious on January 8, 2017.
A video recording of the assault received public condemnation after it went viral on social media.
But police have declined to give details of the suspect, saying more people are being pursued in the matter.
Regional Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Yaw Nketiah-Yeboah tells Nhyira FM the suspect is assisting police investigations as it hunts for more suspects.
“There are more people in line to be arrested. Efforts are underway to get accomplices of this dastardly act arrested,” ASP Nketiah-Yeboah revealed.
The Ashanti region is gaining notoriety over instant mob action in recent times. This is the second time such an incident has been recorded this year after a 27-year-old lady was stripped naked and molested for allegedly stealing at Kejetia.
The police command is concerned about this development, which it has described the incident ‘unfortunate’.
“Even if it’s a murder; assuming the taxi driver had killed somebody with his own hands, nobody has the right to lynch him. There are laws in the country.
“So under such circumstances, relatives, sympathisers should rather report the suspect to the police. How much more traffic offence? And sadly too, the man I understand got up after the accident. It’s very very unfortunate,” he said.
ASP Nketiah-Yeboah warned police will deal ruthlessly with perpetrators of instant justice.
“I’m pleading with our youth and everybody in the Ashanti region in particular and Ghana as a whole to always follow due process whenever one is aggrieved,” he advised.
He, however, warned that “when you are arrested for murdering somebody for harming somebody taking the laws into your own hands, the law will deal drastically with you.”
