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01.07.2017 General News

Traumatised School Proprietress collapses at Police Station …after watching police maltreat a pupil

By Ghanaian Chronicle
Traumatised School Proprietress collapses at Police Station  after watching police maltreat a pupil
01.07.2017 LISTEN

When Hannah Darko, Proprietor of a private school, walked from her house at Abura in the Ahanta West District of the Western Region to the Agona Nkwanta Police Station to bail her 14-year-old son who had been arrested, she was in a healthy condition.

Unfortunately, she has now found herself, not a human being, but a dead body in the morgue of the Dixcove Hospital in the same district.

The elderly woman, who could not withstand the punishment the police were reportedly meting out to her son, collapsed at the police station and was rushed to the Dixcove Hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival. Her sudden demise under such painful circumstances has thrown the entire Abura Village into mourning.

The Agona police are yet to comment on the incident, but the Regional Public Relations Officer, Mrs. Olivia Adiku, told reporters through a WhatsApp Platform that: “I have heard of the incident, but I don't have the actual details. I have sent a message to the District Commander; waiting for the details.”

Information gathered by this paper indicates that on June 16, this year, a misunderstanding ensued between the 14-year-old Junior High School (JHS) pupil and his counterpart female class mate, leading to a fight. This was when the two had closed from school and were heading home. The female JHS pupil reportedly reported the case to her mother, who, in turn, made an official complaint to the school authorities. 

The Chronicle gathered that the school authorities, after listening to the complaint, invited the 14-year-boy for his side of the story.

Upon hearing from the two, the school authorities decided to punish the boy for engaging in a fight with a female pupil.  The mother of the female JHS pupil, who, apparently, was not enthused by the punishment meted out by the school to the 14-year-old boy, decided to report the boy to the police.

The JSS boy was subsequently arrested on June 23 and detained at the counter back of the police station at Agona.  He was reportedly subjected to severe beatings by the police.

Gifty Essuman, a niece of the poor boy who witnessed the incident, told a Takoradi-based radio station that Hannah Darko, who was at the station when the boy was being maltreated by the police, collapsed at the Charge Office.

She was rushed to the Dixcove Government Hospital, but was pronounced dead shortly upon arrival. The police have since released the boy upon the hearing of the death of the woman.

Meanwhile, the Ahanta West Education Directorate of the Ghana Education Service (GES) says it is waiting for an official report from the Abura Rubber Estate D/A Basic School, before commencing investigations into circumstances under which the boy was arrested.

According to the Directorate, until the Headteacher of the Basic School reports officially to them, there was nothing they could do about the detention of the boy by the police.

The Public Relations Officer, Mr. Daniel Payne, in a telephone interview, said: “So we have directed the Headteacher of the school to furnish the Directorate with [an] official report so that we can take action.”

 

From Alfred Adams, Takoradi.

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