Swedru Municipal guard, 3 others in assault video denied bail

The two municipal guards at the Agona West Municipal Assembly (AWMA) and the two others captured on video allegedly assaulting a 17-year-old who they accused of stealing, were last Thursday denied bail by the Swedru District Court presided over by Mr Isaac Apeatu.

The accused persons, Peter Danso, Isaac Ntsiful, Sampson Aikins and Francis Yorke have been charged on four counts of causing harm, assault and abetment to commit crime.

They are to reappear in court on April 24, 2019 for the case to continue.

They have pleaded not guilty to all the charges levelled against them by the prosecution.

Read also: Swedru Municipal guard, 3 others in assault video remanded

Appeal for bail

Mr Frederick Selby, the lawyer for the accused persons prayed for bail since he said the prosecution had concluded the investigations in the matter.

He noted that the prosecution had been inconsistent with their submission and did not need more time to do further investigations, saying that the accused persons were being treated unfairly and must be granted bail.

The prosecution disagreed with counsel and prayed the court to deny the accused persons bail considering the evidence in support of the case and that it would be in the interest of the accused persons for them to be remanded.

Court

The court sided with the arguments of the prosecution and denied the accused persons bail on the grounds that it was not the right moment to grant them bail.

The entire court was filled with hundreds of people made up of relations of both the accused persons and the victim. 

Prosecution

Presenting the facts of the case, the prosecutor, Inspector Chare N. Salia said the victim, Kwame Teboah is a head porter and lives at Agona Nyakrom whilst the first accused, Francis Yorke, was a student and mobile money merchant.

Sampson Aikins, the second accused is a baker while the third and fourth accused persons, Peter Danso and Isaac Ntsiful are both guards at the municipal assembly.

On March 21, 2019, the Francis Yorke alleged that his a mobile phone scratch card worth GH₵95 had been stolen and he informed the Sampson Aikins.

Aikins suspected the victim, Kwame Teboah to be the one who stole it and went ahead to arrest him.

He stated that Aikins held the victim amidst slapping and took him to the forecourt of the GN Bank branch in Agona Swedru where he made the victim to kneel down for interrogation by himself and Yorke.

While the victim was being interrogated, Peter Danso and Isaac Ntsiful suddenly appeared from behind and Danso gave the victim a terrible kick at the right side of his cheek and Teboah fell down on the ground.

He added that the incident drew the attention of a policewoman who was on duty near the scene and instructed that the victim should be sent to the police station but the Ntsiful told the police officer that the victim was his biological brother and that they wanted to help in the amicable settlement of the issue.

He explained that the Aikins and Ntsiful continuously subjected the victim to severe beatings for him to speak the truth.

Subsequently, Danso and Ntsiful stripped the victim naked in search of the alleged missing scratch card but nothing was found on him.

He stressed that the accused persons later left the victim to go and a good Samaritan assisted the victim to lodge a complaint at the police station.

Subsequently, the victim was issued with a medical form to seek medical care.

“Three days after the incident, the victim started experiencing severe pains and discharge from the right ear, headache and dizziness as a result of the terrible kick by the third accused person” he pointed out.

After investigations, the accused persons were charged with the offences and arraigned before court.