Police officers being calmed down at the Bolgatanga Police Station
But for the timely intervention of the Upper East Regional Police Commander, DCOP Redeemer Dedjeo and the Regional Minister, Rockson Bukari, the Bolgatanga municipality would have witnessed a bloody fight between personnel of the Ghana Police Service and the Ghana Armed Forces.
The two personalities stopped some angry stoutly-built police officers from pouncing on some soldiers stationed at Atulbabisi in the municipality for peace keeping duties.
An eyewitness told DAILY GUIDE that a police officer (name withheld) was beaten mercilessly by the soldiers at Sunday noon for wearing a camouflage pair of shorts at the soldiers’ base at Atulbabisi.
According to the eyewitness, the policeman was seen walking with his colleague on the portion of the road from the Post Office junction, through the military checkpoint towards the curve that leads to APEX Bank.
Upon reaching the checkpoint, one of the soldiers reportedly asked the police officer (probably thinking he was a civilian), “…hey! Why are you wearing camo, who you be?”
The police officer reportedly told them he was a police officer and the soldiers replied, “…and so what? Hurry up and go and remove it.” According to the eyewitness, the officer and his colleague started walking hurriedly from the place, while the soldier kept insulting them, making the police officers appear to onlookers as cowards.
The officer in camouflage at a point, stood and turned to look at the soldiers and that action alone, infuriated the soldiers and they pounced on the cop in the camouflage, subjecting him to severe beatings and kicking. The other oOfficer (who was also beaten later) escaped, according to the eyewitness.
When the information got to the Bolgatanga Police Station, the cops there and others who joined from their homes, prepared themselves to also attack the soldiers at their base, but were quickly stopped by their head.
At the time of filing this report, the Regional Police Commander, the Upper East Regional Minister and other senior security officers were meeting over the matter.
When DAILY GUIDE visited the military checkpoint, it did not see any soldier on duty. It was the talk of town that they ran away from their duty point to avoid the fury of the angry “macho” police officers.
From Ebo Bruce-Quansah, Bolgatanga