Maxwell Boamah, a customary successor of late Kofi Ampomah, who was allegedly killed by some police personnel at Adomfe, in the Asante Akyem South Municipality of the Ashanti region, together with nine others, have filed a GH¢10m suit against the Ghana Police Service and the Attorney-General (A-G) for the death of his kinsman.
According to the plaintiff, the deceased, without any cause or act of provocation was allegedly seized by nine officers of the Police Service, when he closed from work on October 15, 2019.
In the writ, filed on October 13, 2022 the plaintiff said the police, after seizing the deceased, assaulted him by using pepper spray on him, as well as butchering him with cutlasses or machetes.
Mr Boamah alleged that after the policemen took the life of Kofi Ampomah,they handled his mortal remains like an animal.
According to him, before Kofi’s demise, the policemen refused and failed to take him to hospital for medical attention, while he was bleeding profusely from the cutlass wounds he had sustained from their brutality.
As a result, the plaintiffs are seeking a declaration by the Human Right Court that the deceased,Kofi Ampomah, was killed or murdered by nine policemen of the Konongo Division of the Ghana Police Service.
“The police finally dumped the deceased at Konongo Odumasi Government Hospital and lied that he had been killed by armed robbers,” the writ said.
They are demanding a compensation of GH¢10 million from ten (10) officers of the Ghana Police Service, including the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr George Akuffo-Dampare.
Per the writ of summons, the amount would be used for the education, maintenance, upkeep and trauma suffered by the dependants of late Kofi Ampomah.
The plaintiffs also want the Police Service to build a statute in honour of late Kofi Ampomah to serve as a constant reminder to the police to protect life and not to destroy life.
The police officers name in the writ, as having a hand in the death of the deceased are; General SergentSulemanSeidu (Sully Seidu), G/CPL Seth Agbango (Seth Abango), D/L/CPL SalifuYakubu, G/SGT Samuel Awrjamb, G/SGT Opare Samuel (Opare Samuel Antwi), D/CPL James Astikson Mensah (James Mensah), G/CPL NyameHayford, G/CPL Emmanuel Divines Delasi (Delasi Divine) and G/L/CPL Samuel Kwame Gorman (Gorman Samuel).
The IGP, Dr George Akuffo-Dampare and Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, were respectively joined to the suit, as head of the police service and the legal advisor of the government.
The other plaintiffs are; Maxwell Boamah, suing for himself and on behalf Eunice Amoako, Samuel SiawAmmpomah, Vida Ampomah, Enoch AgyeiAntwi, Georgina Ampomah, BoatemaaPeprah Irene, Silas DansoPeprah and Nana Appiagyei Danka.
The plaintiffs’ claim
According to the plaintiffs, the deceased, Kofi Ampomah, aged 33, who was their younger brother at the time of his death, was a Sprinter trotro driver plying Adomfe to Kumasi.
Mr Boamah alleged that his brother met his untimely death because the defendants mistook him for a young man who allegedly reported the defendants to the Bompata Police for releasing a woman, who was alleged to be selling local gin, mixed with a substance suspected to be Indian hemp to the public.
He averred that the police, on two different occasions, arrested and released the woman in question, after extorting GH¢3,000.00 and GH¢4,000 00 respectively from her.
The plaintiff added that this was the incident that angered some youth of the town to report the matter to the Bompata Police Station for action.
He said the policemen mentioned in the suit retaliated by attacking the Adomfe town to deal with the young man who took the initiative to report them to the Bompata Police Station.
Therefore, he added that on October 15, 2019 at about 7:30 am, when the deceased had closed from work, he stepped out to go and buy food to eat at a food selling joint at Adomfe.
However, the defendants upon seeing the deceased rushed to seize him.He continued that the policemen, who arrived in two vehicles, sprayed the eyes of the deceased with pepper spray before inflicting wounds on him with cutlasses.
“Plaintiff avers that the deceased became unconscious after bleeding profusely, where upon the nine policemen dumped him in the bucket of one of the vehicles and moved to park at a distance from the murder scene,” the writ states.
The plaintiff asserted that his brother died from the mistreatment meted out to him by Seidu, Abango, Yakubu, Awrjamb, Antwi, Mensah, Hayford, Delasi and Gorman.
