Tema police probe abduction case

The Tema Regional Police Command is investigating a case in which a 38-year-old man, Eric Amoah, is alleged to have been abducted by military personnel from his residence on January 1, 2009.

The victim, who was later released, was conveyed to the Tema General Hospital after he had collapsed on his way home and currently he has difficulty in walking and uses a walking stick.

The Tema Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) John Kudalor, who confirmed the incident, said the police had written to the Military Command at the Military Academy and Training School (MATS), Teshie, for the release of one of the accused persons whose name came up in initial investigations.

He said the police were initially given a wrong address which led to delays in investigations but that was later corrected and a reminder was sent to give a specific date for the release of the military man for investigations to begin.

ACP Kudalor explained that the police had a way of dealing with some institutions such as the military.

Narrating the incident to the Daily Graphic, Amoah said about 6.15 a.m. on January 1, 2009, he had come out of his parents' house, number AP 58 at Tema Community 7, when he saw three men approaching.

He said he knew one of them to be married to the younger sister of his expatriate boss's wife.

Amoah said he, therefore, welcomed him and wanted to know why the early morning visit, to which the military man replied that they needed him for questioning at the Tema Community 4 Police Station.

He said before he could even inform his parents, who were in the house, the men held him by his trousers and dragged him into a waiting private car.

He said he met a lady and one other man who was driving and they took him to the Community 11 traffic light area, instead of the Community 4 Police Station.

There, the man he knew alighted and left them, while the two unknown men took him through the main Afienya road before branching off to Gbetsile where the lady got down, leaving the two strange men with him.

He said they took him to a quiet area where there were uncompleted houses and instructed him to get down.

Amoah said he noticed a pistol tucked in the trousers of one of them when they asked him to come out of the car.

He said the two men questioned him as they hit and kicked his abdomen and legs and shouted that if he refused to tell the truth about what he knew about his boss's property, "he would see".

He denied knowledge of his boss's property and after several hours of beating, he was asked to enter the car again, with the warning• that they were giving him the chance to think over it to repeat the assault.

Amoah said he was conveyed to a point at Community 4 and left there, after which his parents, who had reported his strange disappearance to the Tema Community 8 Police, found him and conveyed him to the hospital.

He said he fainted and could not recall anything until he recovered at the Tema General Hospital.

Amoah said he was grateful to the police for their co-operation during his predicament but called for the investigations to be completed soon to enable him to overcome the trauma he was going through.