Policeman jailed for manslaughter

Tamale, July 28, GNA - A Tamale High Court on Thursday sentenced Edward Kan-Ezumah, a 42-year old Corporal of the Ghana Police Service to a 15-year jail term for causing the death of Kwame Ayamba, an unemployed man in November last year. He pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder but guilty of manslaughter.

The court presided over by Justice Victor Doegah found the accused person not guilty of murder but convicted him on his plea of guilty to manslaughter. The Prosecutor, Mr. Komla Agbeko-Kra, a State Attorney, told the court that the convict, who was in plain clothes, went out with some friends to a drinking bar a few metres away from the Tamale Police Barracks. While they were drinking, a second-hand clothes dealer entered the bar to sell his wares and Ezumah expressed interest to buy two pairs of trousers.

After bargaining at length, the two agreed on a price and Ezumah bought the two trousers. Moments later, when the second-hand clothes dealer demanded payment for the items, Ezumah told him that he had already paid for the wares. A heated argument ensued between them, which attracted the attention of other people in the bar. One of them, Kwame Ayamba who was a witness during the transaction corroborated the claim of the second-hand clothes dealer that the accused did not pay for the items. He told the court that when the convict realized the embarrassment, he went home to wear in police uniform bearing an "AK-47" assault rifle and confronted Ayamba in front of the bar.

Ayamba maintained that the convict did not pay for the items and the confrontation resulted in a scuffle during which the rifle the policeman was holding went off hitting Ayamba in the thigh. Ayamba was taken to the Tamale Regional Hospital but died a few days after admission.