Democracy Hub Failed To Prove Police Brutality Claims- Dampare
The Inspector-General of Police, Dr George Akufo Dmpare has disclosed organisers of the Occupy Jubilee House Protest, Democracy Hub, have failed to prove their claims of police brutality more than a month after the protest.
Social media was awash with claims and reports of police brutality against protesters after the first day of the three-day protest against economic mismanagement.
The police in a statement directed all persons who made the claims to step out with their evidence for further investigations.
At an engagement with the leadership of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) in Accra on Tuesday, October 24, the IGP said not a single piece of evidence had been adduced yet.
“As I speak, after months of completing that demonstration till today not a shred of evidence has been brought up to indicate that police brutalized them.”
Allegations
Some journalists and protesters as well as passers-by shared their experiences of brutalities at the hands of the police during their arrest on Thursday, September 21, 2023, in Accra.
A female reporter with Metro TV said she was manhandled by a number of police officers after she was spotted filming the assault of a man who had been dragged from the entrance of the Accra Regional Police Command into the premises.
According to her, some of the officers pulled her by the collar of her shirt while one officer reached out for her cell phone- with which she took the footage- from between her thighs as she tried keeping it from them.
In a separate recount, Barker Vormawor, convenor of the protest said he was kept in a room together with other demonstrators at the Accra Regional Police Command where 17 individuals supposedly intelligence officers were let in the room to beat them up.
“Beyond the arrest and the violent nature of the arrest, the one I‘m taking particular offence is we were taken into the Greater Accra Regional Command, put into a room, and 17 individuals {in plain clothes} who were wearing all kinds of earrings, who had dyed their hairs in different manners where thrown into the room…to beat us,” he recounted.
These drew criticisms from stakeholders including the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), and an advisory from the Commission on Human Rights Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).
But the police rebutted the allegations and challenged individuals who claim otherwise to provide evidence of the assaults.
“Therefore, anyone with evidence to the contrary should provide it for investigation,” they said in a statement released on Friday, September 22, 2023.
