News

Police brutality leaves 67-year-old farmer partly ‘paralysed’

A 67-YEAR-OLD farmer at Kpenoe, near Ho, Mr Emmanuel Agakpe Homenya is now left ‘partly paralysed’ after he was allegedly subjected to severe beatings by a police officer at the Deme Police Station in the Volta Region.

The incident, according to the victim, took place on September 15, at the Deme Police Station.

The Spectator gathered that the farmer went to his farm as usual that day but realised that someone had erected pillars on the farm, suggesting that an unscrupulous land leader had sold the land to an unsuspecting developer.

Without any hesitation, the senior citizen pulled the pillars down on his 21-acre farm.

Later, a policeman from the Deme Police Station came to his house at Kpenoe and instructed him to follow him to the Charge Office.

The farmer said that although he did not resist arrest, the officer insisted on handcuffing and dragging him to the station.

He said that on reaching the station, the officer took a whip and lashed him until he sustained multiple wounds on his back.

“I asked him what was my crime and he told me that even people like Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings were tortured and their nails removed from their fingers before they became Heads of State.”

The victim was later rushed to the Ho Teaching Hospital where he was treated and discharged.

When he turned up in the Newsroom of this paper at Ho a few days ago to narrate his ordeal, Mr Homenya was unable to walk steadily and was assisted by his daughter.

He struggled to speak with the body shaking.

Investigations by The Spectator revealed that the buyer of the land (name withheld) was not in the country at the time, and it was rather the caretaker of the land who engaged the police to torture the farmer.

The identity of the police officer was not established at the time of filing this report but the Volta Regional Police Commander, DCOP Edward Kwateng has given the assurance that all was set for a thorough enquiry into the matter.

He said that the police officer, when found culpable, would face the disciplinary measures of the Ghana Police Service.

DCOP Kwateng warned that any unruly officer whose conduct dragged the image of the police service in the mud would suffer the consequences.

“We will definitely get to the bottom of this matter,” he gave assurance.

From Alberto Mario Noretti, Ho

News

Committee probing petitions against Chief Justice to begin hearings tomorrow

The Committee set up by President John Dramani Mahama to inquire into three petitions filec against the Chief Justice, Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo, will commence hearings tomorrow, Thursday May 15, 2025.

The five-member Committee chaired by Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang of the Supreme Court, was set up by the President in accordance with Article 146(6) of the 1992 constitution and in

consultation with the Council of State, following a determination of a prima facie case against the Chief Justice.

The committee will sit three times a week and present their recommendations to the President

upon completion of their work.

It would be recalled that President John Dramani Mahama recently suspended Chief Justice following the establishment of a prima facie case in response to three separate petitions seeking her removal from office.

News

38-year-old man gets life imprisonment for killing Assemblies of God pastor in 2018

After close to seven years of trial, a seven-member jury on Wednesday, May 14, returned a guilty verdict in the murder case involving the killing of the Senior Pastor of the Central Assemblies of God church at Tema in 2018.

The convict, Francis Nabegmado, a relative of the deceased, inflicted a fatal knife wound on Rev. Dr. David Nabegmado on December 30, 2018, after alleging that the senior pastor was a false preacher who engaged in idol worship and human sacrifices.

After an hour of summing up by the judge, Mary Maame Ekue Yanzuh, the jury retired briefly and returned with a unanimous guilty verdict.

Based on the unanimous verdict of the jurors who had previously studied the statements of the five witnesses called by the prosecution, and listened to the summing up process, the judge sentenced the 38-year-old to life imprisonment.

When he was offered an opportunity to comment on the verdict, the convict told the judge that he wanted to go home to meet his family.

“My Lady, I want to see my family, and I want to be taken to Yendi”.

When the judge told him she couldn’t make such an order for him to go and see his family in Yendi, the convict forcefully said, “I insist”.

Francis, who will now spend the rest of his life at the Nsawam medium security prison, had told the court throughout the trial that the decision to attack his uncle, Rev. Nebegmado, was driven by insanity, but that did not save him from receiving a life sentence.

Speaking briefly after the sentencing, Senior Pastor of the Assemblies of God church at Tema Community 4, Rev. Emmanuel Kwesi Ofori, said the church has been waiting for this closure for the past seven years and will soon issue an official statement.

Source: Myjoyonline.com