Police Charge On Ghanair Headquarters

Accra, Oct 29, Daily Guide -- A police team dispatched to maintain peace at the Ghana Airways headquarters in the Airport Residential Area, Accra yesterday threw caution to the wind when they manhandled the head of the Public Relations Unit of the Ministry of Roads and Transport, Mr. Ken Anku.

Mr. Anku, who had gone to the Ghanair offices to observe things for the ministry, following a report that the embattled airline passengers had blocked the entrance to the company, had a rude shock when the police team assaulted him, without any provocation.

A visibly shaken Anku was bundled into his car by the gun-wielding police personnel. The Police service had dispatched about 50 cops under the command of Chief Superintendent Dery, to the Ghana Airways House, to protect lives and property, following a report of rowdy behaviour by aggrieved passengers, numbering 250.

According to the irate passengers, they had been left stranded for over two months, owing to the inability of the airline to secure them an aircraft to return to their destinations. The passengers, most of whom were return-ticket holders on the Dusseldorf-Rome route, noted that they purchased the tickets over four months earlier, when they arrived her for the summer holidays.

Attempts to get a flight back have been unsuccessful. The airline which is being managed by a three-member task force, then decided to refund money for a number of the tickets, but the stranded passengers would not want to have anything of the sort, because the money, in their estimation, was inadequate.

They, therefore, descended on the airline headquarters, blockading the main entrance, leading to the police action. But luck ran out for Mr Anku, after an alleged instruction from certain superior police officers that he be thrown out of the place by the police personnel on duty. The head of PR section's identity was not known to the police.