Aboabo youth angry over police killing of Hawal Halidu

Friends and relatives of Mustapha Hawal Halidu, 28, the man who was allegedly shot and killed by members of the ‘Operation Calm Life’ in the early hours of Wednesday at Amanfrom Thursday massed up at the Suame Divisional Police in Kumasi to demand answers from the police.

The mob, which was mainly made up of the youth, wanted the police to explain to them the circumstances that led to what they described as “the cruel killing of a friend and relative at the hands of the security agencies.”

According to them, the deceased, who is not known to be a criminal, was unarmed and not in the act of committing any crime at the time he was shot.

Reinforcement

The youth, who trooped in from Amanfrom and Aboabo, massed up at the Suame Police station, causing heavy traffic congestion as they threatened to enter the police premises.

It took a police and military reinforcement to restore calm at the police station.

Incident

One Razak, who claimed to be a friend of the deceased, said hours before his demise, Mustapha called to ask him to be his witness in signing an indenture for a plot of land he was purchasing.

He said because he was not going to be available the following day, he declined to go with him only to be called an hour later by another friend of theirs that Mustapha had been shot by members of ‘Operation Calm Life’ at Amanfrom, near Barekese.

According to him, all attempts to get the police to give them information about what led to the shooting had proved futile.

Razak told the Daily Graphic that they had to trace the body to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, where they were told by the mortuary attendant that the police had instructed them to direct any claimant of the body to the Suame Police Station.

He said at the police station, however they were told that members of Operation Calm Life only report to the Regional Headquarters and as such “we have to go back there for any information we want.

“When we went there too, the police told us they were not aware of any incident and could not tell us anything,” he pointed out.

He said even though the police were ready to release the body to the family for burial, “until we are told why they killed him, we are not taking the body.”

Police

When contacted, the outgoing Ashanti Regional Police Commander, Commissioner of Police (COP) Mr Ken Yeboah, said he was not aware of any such incident as he was with the President who was attending an official assignment in Kumasi.