Five Ghanaian nationals – four boys and a mother of one of them – who suffered egregious human rights violations at the hands of beastly soldiers have sued the Ghana at the ECOWAS Court of Justice after the country failed to ensure justice.
The five – Stella Kubagee, Joseph Anny, Samuel Anane, Solomon Nketia and Abdul Samed Abubakari – residents of Asuakwaa Community, Sunyani Metropolitan District and the Bono Region of Ghana, are alleging human rights violations.
Ranging in ages between 13 and 16, they are demanding financial assuagement along with justiciable action against the military officers who picked them up in the middle of the night, wartime style, and beat them with metals over supposed theft of a laptop.
Accra-based Joy News which has extensively covered the issue reports that the boys were woken up from their sleep and picked up from their respective houses by some soldiers of the Ghana Armed Forces stationed at the Liberation Barracks in Sunyani.
Their supposed offense was that they had a laptop belonging to one, Captain Prempeh. In Ghana.
“They beat the boys with sticks, a pestle, a metal rod, a vehicle fan-belt and a cutlass. They stripped the boys naked and poured water on them as they beat them. In the process of beating the second plaintiff, they took him to his house where they met his mother, the first Plaintiff”, court documents state.
The story was first covered in a JoyNews documentary titled, “As if we weren’t human; tracking unsolved police and military brutalities”.
When the case was reported to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), CHRAJ reportedly ordered the soldiers to pay Ghc10,000 (less than US$2000) each to the victims within three months.
The marauding soldiers were to also give the victims medical care and then face disciplinary action from the Ghana Armed Forces.
The monies have since been paid to four of the victims to the neglect of one, Stella Kubagee, according to court documents before the ECOWAS Court of justice.
They are asking the court to order Ghana to carry out an effective investigation into the matter. They also want financial compensation in the following terms
They also are asking for rehabilitation and psycho-social services as well a directive that Ghana legalises legislation that criminalizes and spells out punishment for all acts of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
The court documents filed on November 2 show that the Plaintiffs will be represented by lawyers from Ghana, Gambia, and Nigeria at the regional court.