CHRAJ for court over brutalized client
Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Volta, Monday gave notice it would go to court to seek justice for a client, allegedly brutalized by the police at Aflao a decade ago.
Simon Deffour, 39, an Evangelist and photographer, has a bludgeoned eye and a shattered ear as a result of the beatings.
Deffour’s left eye is almost popped out of its sockets with his head puffed-up.
He is blind in the left eye and deaf in the left ear.
The sole perpetrator of the act named in correspondence only as Detective Buabeng, then at the Aflao Police Station, is said to have resigned from the Police Service and currently resident in the United States of America.
Mr Deffour told the Ghana News Agency in the offices of Volta Regional Directorate of CHRAJ, that the incident happened on July 14, 2003.
He said Mr Buabeng grabbed him from behind in town around Togbe Amenya Fiti’s residence and with the help of a second policeman, a Sergeant Vincent Agbenoo, dragged him to the police station
He said at the station, Buabeng held him by his beard and banged his head against the wall a few times.
Mr Deffour alleged that Buabeng hit him with a blow on the left eye, on which he had had a cataract operation only a week before.
He said, his eyes streaked blood and fluid, but was pushed into the cells and only released the next day, upon the intervention of his parents.
Mr Deffour said the issue was over a piece of family land sold by an Auntie, which he objected to.
He said he had gone to the site to demand that workmen stopped work, but was beaten up.
Mr Deffour said he reported the case to the Aflao Police but was told it could not be handled since the issue was not criminal.
He said he visited the police station a few times on the request of Mr Buabeng but did not find him only to be accosted in town on July 14 2003, sent to the Aflao Police Station and manhandled.
Mr Joseph Nuertey, CHRAJ Volta Regional Director showed the GNA a letter from his office to the Police Intelligence and Professional Standards Bureau (PIPS) over the issue, dated August 21, 2012, which he said had so far yielded no result.
He said the complaint was first lodged at CHRAJ offices at Denu on November 2, 2006.
Mr Nuertey said though letters had been sent to the police at various levels over the issue “it is worth-noting that it was not until 21st July, 2011 that the Commission received any piece of information from the District Commander (Aflao) indicating the station diary confirmed the arrest and that the docket was sent to the Divisional Command in Keta”.
The CHRAJ letter to PIPS further indicated that “the District Commander also informed the Commission per the same letter that Detective Corporal Buabeng had resigned from the Ghana Police and at the time domiciled in the United States of America”.
“We (CHRAJ) wrote to the Divisional Commander, Keta to find out the status of the docket only to be told that the docket could not be traced,” that correspondence from the CHRAJ Volta Regional Directorate indicated.
Documents attached to the letter from CHRAJ Volta to PIPS include Sergeant Vincent Agbenoo’s comments, pictures, and a referral letter from the Ketu District hospital, complainants compliant and the investigative report from CHRAJ district office in Denu.
Source: GNA