The late Boafo Osei Kwame
The shop manager of West Hills Mall branch of electrical appliances dealer, Max Buy Ghana Limited, was yesterday remanded into police custody for allegedly tasing the brother of gospel musician Perpetual Didier, leading to his death.
The accused, Boafo Osei Kwame, who is on a provisional charge of murder, was hauled before the Sowutuom Magistrate Court for allegedly tasering the deceased Shadrack Allu with his personal taser while a police officer struggled to arrest the deceased.
Court documents indicate that the deceased and his friend were moving suspiciously in the shopping mall on January 30, 2023, giving Sergeant Daniel Abeiku, a police officer stationed at the mall a reason to search a backpack he was carrying, but he refused and began running out of the shopping mall.
A gospel singer, Perpetual Didier, last Tuesday accused some police officers of allegedly killing his 32-year-old brother, Shadrach Allu, at the West Hills Mall in Weija.
The deceased, according to her, was billed to leave for Germany after spending the holidays in Ghana and had gone to the shopping mall to purchase some items.
She said the deceased had withdrawn an undisclosed amount of money for the items, but he was stopped by some police officers for a search, which he refused and insisted that the search be done at the nearest police station for fear of an illegal substance being planted on him.
The singer, in her Facebook Live, suggested that the deceased was assaulted by the police officers and was later shocked with a taser, leading to his death.
But court documents indicate that the deceased after being signaled by the police who requested to check his backpack, removed a substance wrapped in black polythene which he put in his back pocket and began running out of the mall.
“The policeman pursued the deceased and got him arrested. The deceased struggled with the policeman when he was being cuffed and, in the process, he removed the said wrapped black polythene from his back pocket and swallowed it,” the documents say.
The prosecution’s preliminary fact sheet indicated that the accused, Boafo Osei Kwame, who saw the incident between the deceased and the police officer, rushed to the scene, removed his personal taser and shocked the deceased, rendering him unconscious.
The fact said the deceased was rushed to the Somotech Hospital in the shopping mall for treatment, but he was pronounced dead by the medical doctor on duty.
The accused was arrested and during investigations told the police that he bought the taser for his personal protection.
The facts sheet adds that “the body of the deceased was carefully inspected but no physical marks of assault were found. The body was later removed and deposited at Police Hospital for preservation and autopsy.”
Meanwhile, the management of the shopping mall in a press statement confirmed a struggle between the deceased and the arresting officer, but did not make mention of the use of a taser by either the officer or the accused, who has been hauled before court for murder.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak