Suffering punishment for no wrongdoing

I had not the slightest inkling about the danger that awaited me, as I left my Atonsu Kuwait residence to Amakom. The Grace Baptist Church at Amakom, Kumasi, where I worship, was organizing a clean-up exercise and I was eager to be part of that.
    
The day was Saturday, December 02, 2017, and I only carried with me the keys to my house and a handkerchief, and this, naturally was not unexpected, considering the sort of physical activity I was going to engage in.
    
My troubles began, as I inched closer – just few metres away from the church premises, to join the other volunteers for the exercise. There stood this lady, who kept yelling and making threatening gestures towards me.
   
“What is it that you have dropped in the open drain?” she kept shouting. I initially thought, this was for some other person and not me. I found her behavior quite strange and bizarre. 
    
Instinctively, I looked behind me and could not find anybody. That was when I realized, there might be something wrong, gathered myself and politely asked what my crime was.
    
She pointed to the drain and accused me of having dropped some goods and guess what – disposable cups into it. I profusely denied that and fortunately there was this gentleman, who was observing things from a distance.
    
He stood on the side of the truth – confirmed that I was innocent and that was how I escaped what could have been a cruel and nasty beating.
    
There are many people out there who might have gone through similar experience but were not as lucky as I was.
    
Innocent people are sometimes punched, kicked and given hefty slaps because of plain mischief – spurious claims and accusations of wrongdoing.
    
Others are spending time in prison – punished for crimes they never committed.
     
These are realities that everybody should appreciate and should guide how we treat people perceived to have acted badly.
     
We all could be victims of either mistaken identity or a plain frame up – conspiracy.
      
It is for this reason that I would want to strongly urge the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and the media to do more to discourage mob injustice.

By Gifty Amofa
Source: GNA