COPEC pledges legal support for driver, mate remanded for assaulting police

The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) has pledged legal support for a commercial driver and his mate who were involved in a brawl with a police officer.

Executive Secretary of COPEC, Duncan Amoah has argued that the court has not been fair to the two men, especially when it has failed to ask the police officer to also appear in court.

“We have all condemned the action of the two men but eyewitness accounts suggest the police who stopped the driver was the first to slap him,” he noted.

“Interestingly, the police officer was left out of the court proceedings. If we are aiming to serve deterrence, then the police officer must also be involved in the processes or is he above the law,’ Mr Amoah asked.

The incidence which took place at Kasoa in the Central region over the weekend and gone viral on social media has seen the duo remanded in police custody.

The video making the rounds has a helpless a uniformed Police Officer receiving multiple blows from the driver and his mate with his helmet on.

The driver and his mate, identified as Francis Buabeng and Albert Ansah respectively, were arraigned before court on Monday where they pleaded guilty to the offence amidst tears and without any legal representation.

They were subsequently remanded to reappear in court on April 1, 2019.

The swift justice has raised eyebrows especially when similar assaults of other civilian citizens have either received little or no attention at all.

Read the full statement below

CHAMBER OF PETROLEUM CONSUMERS-GHANA

19-03-19

ENSURE THERE IS ABSOLUTE FAIRNESS IN THE SAGA OF THE POLICE, THE DRIVER AND HIS MATE.

News of a viral video of a fight between a police officer and a commercial driver and his drivers assistant went viral a few days ago leading to public outbursts and outright condemnation.

Whiles we at Copec join in condemning the open brawl and apparent public nuisance this sort of open confrontation generates, it is also commendable that the law is seen to being applied with all the swiftness one can fathom.

Notwithstanding however, we believe the law should NOT be skewed in any way, shape or form to suit anyone be it an officer in uniform or the driver and his mate.

Several eye witnesses account after the video went viral and the subsequent arrest of the driver and his mate has pointed to the gross and inappropriate conduct on the part of the said police officer who is believed to have initiated or started the said fight by repeatedly dishing slaps and hitting the driver in the said trotro after he stopped to arrest him for jumping a traffic light.

The said driver and his mate have subsequently, within 48 hours been processed before the law courts even without a legal representation, though the said officer who is believed to have initiated or started the slapping and “hitting” or physical assault is now a hero and walks freely because he was in uniform.

Whiles a good section of the police in whom Ghanaians and the law have invested confidence and logistics in protecting human lives and proterties continue to work very hard, passionately and professionally in the discharge of their duties, some few others also contiously apply their own set of laws contrary to what the Ghanaian laws provide and will go to all lenghts possible sometimes to show brute “power” to largely the poor and defenceless people within society.

It has not been long ago that some 7 innocent Ghanaians were shot at and killed with all manner of excuses of them being armed robbers which only turned out to be completely untrue though the lives of these 7 young men had already been wasted.

This took the President of the Republic himself to go down there to calm tempers after this barbaric act, but as we speak the Ghanaian public is not aware of any sanctions having been applied to the said officers who engaged in this barbarism and trigger happy behaviour.

Another police officer, less than a forthnight ago, also decided to take the laws in his own hands once again by brutally assaulting some Ghanaian Times journalist after his own unlicensed motorbike apparently crushed into a car carrying these journalists and the subsequent confrontation leaving these journalists badly injured and even going ahead to “lock” up the injured for daring to ask questions and recording a lawless police officer.

Instances of police brutalities and excesses on these commercial drivers abound and we believe the police adninistration would need to do an urgent in-house cleaning to immediately weed out some of these misfits who continue to bring shame and opprobrium to the integrity of the esteemed police service.

A responsible Chamber like ours, will sure not condone lawlesness and will neither sit unconcerned whiles a key section of our Membership who are ably represented by the GPRTU Chair at the Council Level continues to suffer the excesses injustices and subsequent man-handling from some officers in uniform.

We are hereby calling on the Inspector General of Police and the Attorney General of the Republic to ensure a true and thourough investigations be immediately conducted and to further ensure that nothing but absolute fairness prevails in this matter which is duly captured on video, of an apparent public brawl between an officer who should obviously know better even in the application of the law but deciding to rather use “slaps” on citizens for road traffic offences as this falls contrary to what the law itself dictates.

Signed

Duncan Amoah
Executive Secretary

Source: Ghana/otecfmghana.com