The persistent move by the Police Administration to allegedly cover some police officers of a patrol team for shooting to death a 25-year-old worker of Easy Microfinance Capital Limited at Adablaka in Accra, Divine Akuinor, on Saturday, January 5, 2018 has been exposed.
An autopsy report conducted on the late Divine Akuinor, by a Pathologist at the Police Hospital, Chief Superintendent Dr Owusu Afriyie, sighted by Today has confirmed that indeed the deceased was shot at close range.
The one-page autopsy report with reference number PM 108/19 dated February 22, 2019 also confirmed that the deceased was shot by a gun in his chest from close range.
But the Police Administration in its earlier statement claimed that the patrol team only fired gun warning shots from a two-mile distance at the scene of the incident at the Second Railway Lane behind Malik Adjorman Last Stop Taxi Station at Teshie in Accra.
The contest of the report stemmed from the facts that the banker was shot by the police officers at a few metres in the back of his father’s house at Teshie-Adjorman around 1:30 am.
Today was told by sources close to the police administration that top shots of the Ghana Police Service tried albeit unsuccessfully to influence the autopsy report to suit the claims of the police.
It would be recalled that Akuinor, a former student of Sogakope Senior High School (SHS) and hails from Mepe Traditional Area in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region, was mistakenly shot as an armed robber at Teshie by some police officers on Saturday, January 5, 2018.
The late Akuinor, who was a United Nations citizen in Ghana, together with Dennis Kojo Amponsah, an auto mechanic, were shot by a police patrol team after a lady lodged a complaint about some unknown persons snatching her bag.
The 28-year-old mechanic, Kojo Amponsah, has since received medical treatment at the Police Hospital and discharged after sustaining severe gunshot wounds.
But Divine Akuinor sadly could not survive, he passed on after arriving at the hospital.
Today gathered that the gruesome murder of late Akuinor has since become the talk of the entire Teshie community and Mepe including Liberia of where his mother, Mrs Ruth Akuinor, comes from.
Master Akuinor, Today was reliably informed, was picked by a motorbike a few metres from his house by Dennis Kojo Amponsah when he [Amponsah] was returning from Sakumono before the horror was visited on them by police officers.
According to our findings, the police patrol team indiscriminately fired gunshots at the two who were suspected to be armed robbers.
Today was told that after the incident, a resident who only gave his name as Isaac approached the police patrol team and informed them that the two victims were not the real culprits and that he met the main suspect on two separate motorbikes who were riding around the area.
What is very annoying, Today gathered, was the fact that there was no personal record in the Police Hospital mortuary’s book on the body of the deceased for the family to identify the very date that the police rushed the body to the mortuary.
After the dastardly act on Saturday evening, Today discovered that the police officers prevented residents in the area from having a look at the body and threatened with them gunshots.
Meanwhile, the Akuinor Banna Family of Sevie Divisional Clan of Mepe Traditional Area in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region has set aside Saturday, May 4, 2016 to perform the final funeral rites to bury their 25-year-old son.
The funeral rite of the banker will start on Wednesday, May 1, 2019 at H/No14, located at the Second Railway Lane at Ajorman in Teshie Traditional Area in the Greater Accra Region, and it would be continued with a wake observation at Mepe Traditional Area in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region.
Story: Freeman KORYEKPOR AWLESU
Writer’s email: freeman.koryekpor@todaygh.com