Divine AkuinorP
The Ghana Police Service (GPS) has come out to justify the killing of a 25-year-old suspected armed robber at Teshie in Accra last week.
This comes after the family of the deceased has pointed accusing fingers at the police in what they believed to be a case of a mistaken identity.
According to Gameli Akuinor, a brother of the deceased, the family first heard of his death on Sunday at the Nungua Police Station, a day after the shooting incident had happened.
This, he believes, was a move by the police to cover up the act after mistakenly shooting his brother.
However, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) for the Accra Regional Police Command, Efia Tenge, in an interview insisted that the suspect committed the crime and was shot after he attempted fleeing from the police.
However, authorities claim the young man, Divine Akuinor, snatched a woman’s handbag together with her iPhone in the late hours of Friday, January 4, 2019 and attempted to flee.
DSP Tenge said in an interview that the police did not mistakenly shoot the late Mr. Akuinor as his family claims, but that he died from police gunshot wounds.
“A search conducted on the deceased together with the one who was arrested led to the retrieval of the lady’s phone. It was in the pocket of the deceased together with a kitchen knife and other items, including five mobile phones,” she revealed, adding that the police suspect the other mobile phones were also stolen.
The GPS is often criticised for its shoot-to-kill approach and in several cases, they have been accused of killing innocent people and framing them up as robbers.
This comes as the police service is still dealing with the killing of seven innocent men at Asawase in the Ashanti Region.
By Nii Adjei MensahfiP