IGP Orders Interdiction Of Koforidua Cops Who Tortured Suspect In Custody

Acting Inspector General of Police, James Oppong Buanu, has directed that two officers of the Koforidua Police, who were caught on video torturing a suspect in their custody be interdicted.

According to the directive, the interdiction ofGeneral Sergeant Patrick Amoako and Lance Corporal Isaac Maafo, both of the Railways police station in the Eastern regional capital, is to be effected immediately.

The two cops are captured in a video that has gone viral on social media, whipping suspect, Dodzi Alegbe, while the suspect is in handcuffs. The suspect had also been bare chested, apparently as part of the corporal punishment to make the lashes bite deeper.

In addition to the physical torture, the victim is also said to have been detained for more than 48 hours, a vandalism of habeas corpus.

Mr. Alegbe is suspected to have stolen ghc1,600 from his employers but he has denied the allegation.

In an attempt to make him change his denial and force a confession from him therefore, the two officers stripped him bare and whipped him while he was in handcuffs. The victim was also refused bail, according to the background story.

The Acting IGP has ordered that the two officers be interdicted with immediate effect, but the public is already distrustful of the interdiction leading anywhere.

Personnel of the Ghana Police service are notorious for abusing peoples rights in spite of the clarity of the law on the standard procedures for arrest and charges. The Police are also very notorious for demanding and even coercing hapless victims for bribes.

Consequently, the average Ghanaian who suffers crime is more likely to take it in his stride than report to the Police with its vulture-like notoriety to see the report of a case as an opportunity to harvest bribe. The Police Intelligence and Professional Standards Bureau (PIPS) is the institution mandated to handle Police abuses, but many do not trust PIPS.