Police Deny Assault On Arrested Occupy Jubilee House Protesters, Others

The police have denied reported cases of assaults on protesters and other people who were arrested during the first day of the Occupy Jubilee House protest in Accra.

According to them, there is no reported case or evidence of assault in its records.

“It was established at the meeting that there is no evidence or reported case of assault against the demonstrators according to Police records.”

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.

All these have been rebutted by the police as they have 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.