Angry Talensi youth challenge police on shooting of 'innocent' suspect

Youth in Talensi are up in arms against the Ghana Police Service for shooting and killing a man they believe is innocent.

Police on Saturday, December 18 gunned down 34-year-old Laayaame Simon, alias Yendu, who is said to be one of the three suspected armed robbers who callously murdered two police officers in Zuarungu in the Upper East Region on Wednesday, December 15.

According to a police statement on Wednesday, December 22, “a special anti-robbery squad assisted by the Upper East Regional Police Command through an intelligence-led operation at Kpatia in the Talensi District” resulted in their action.

But youth of Talensi say the man, whom they know as Simon Nawak Yindoog of Sheaga, was even at work when the heinous crime was committed.

“The innocent man killed is known to everyone in the community and beyond as a very humble soul, peace maker and the bread winner of his extended family,” they said at a press conference on Tuesday, December 21.

“He has no criminal record of any form to the best of our knowledge and we challenge anyone including the killers to provide contrary evidence of this fact.”

They further stated that he did not resist arrest but the police decided to prosecute their agenda of “targeted” killing by shooting him.

“Assuming without admitting that in any case there’s a lead intelligence linking him to the culprits of such an ungodly act, why will you not rather apprehend him alive to aid you arrest the remaining perpetrators?

“You the police should have wanted him alive more than any other person if that weird logic which has no evidentiary backing but just a rumour is assumed.”

They want government to constitute an independent investigation into the incident “by making sure that the community opinion leaders must form part of the constituted committee”.

They are also calling on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to call his men to order, particularly on extortions from motor riders and unlawful search of homes.

---3news.com