The Accra Circuit Court ‘8’, presided over by Adelaide Abui Keddey, has remanded a resident of Shukura in Accra, Salim Mohammed Shaibu, for rioting/inciting riot and assault of a police officer.
Salim is alleged to have assaulted the complainant, Constable Daniel Afriyie, a police officer stationed at the Shukura Police District Headquarters.
Although Salim has pleaded not guilty to the charges, the prosecuting officer, Chief Inspector Maxwell Ayin, narrated to the court last week that on September 2, 2022, the complainant was on duty at the Shukura Police Station as a Station Guard when the accused unleashed his attack on him.
According to him, at about 1:30pm of September 2, 2022, a group of people numbering about 50 arrested and brought to the Shukura Police Station suspect Samuel Otoo for allegedly stealing a laptop and mobile phone from a house in the neighbourhood.
C/Insp Ayin stated that whilst the police were interrogating the suspect in the Charge Office, Selima Shaibu and Ramatu Nagaiye, who were among a crowd in front of the station, begun to assault the suspect’s wife, Lydia Otoo.
He added that when the police tried to intervene, the accused, Saliam Mohammed Shaibu, led his accomplices to riot at the Police Station, adding: “Suddenly the accused emerged from the mob and gave G/Constable Daniel Afriyie a hectic blow at the right eye. The complainant sustained injuries on his face as a result of the assault.”
The prosecutor added that some minutes into the rioting, other accomplices of the accused person, numbering about 200, scaled over the wall of the Police Station, besieged the place and started to attack the police officers on duty.
He continued a that reinforcement teams from Dansoman and Mamprobi police stations were called to the scene, and the mob, upon seeing the reinforcement team, took to their heels.
The accused person was arrested and a formal complaint lodged against him.
The accused admitted the offence and in his cautioned statement stated that he did not know what came over him to assault the Police Officer. But he failed to lead the police to arrest his accomplices.
The prosecutor further informed the court that the police were on a hunt for the other suspects.
The court, however, remanded the accused on the basis that mob attacks on the law enforcement officers were becoming one too many.
It has adjourned to the next hearing to September 20.
