By Michael Foli Jackidy, GNA
Ho (V/R), Oct 12, GNA-A 45-year-old trained teacher, Stephen Frempong, a native of Sokode-Etoe in the Ho Municipality, is seeking compensation from the State over what he describes as years of human rights abuses, torture and inhumane treatment, while in wrongful police and prison custody.
Frempong is also demanding the return of personal belongings, including cash, two HP laptops and a mobile phone, which he alleged were seized from him at the time of his wrongful arrest and never returned.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in interview in Ho, Frempong recounted that he was arrested on September 3, 2005, at age 23, on allegations of robbery following an incident involving a commercial driver in Ho.
He said he was accused of attempting to rob the driver of money; an allegation he has consistently denied, saying the money rather belonged to him.
According to Frempong, the incident occurred shortly after his Russian girlfriend gave him a sum in Russian currency, equivalent at the time to about 550,000 old cedis, now estimated at GHS55,000 as financial support to help him establish himself before her return to Russia.
He recounted that, while attempting to exchange the money into Ghana Cedis, he encountered a man, Selorm Hanson, alias “Joseph K. Noble,” who offered to assist him with the transaction.
Frempong alleged that Hanson, together with a cabby driver, later ganged up and attempted to forcibly take the money from him, while lacing food they offered him with a substance, which sent him unconscious.
He narrated that he woke up noticing they were on a maize farm, where Hanson allegedly struck him on the head with an iron rod, believing it was a murder mission, to kill him and to steal his money.
Frempong said a misunderstanding subsequently broke out between the two conspirators, during which Hanson allegedly stabbed the driver with a knife.
He said rescuers, who rushed to the scene after hearing his screaming for help, in the ensuing commotion, mistook him to be the armed robber, due to blood-stains over his body and seeing the stabbed driver, lying on the ground bleeding profusely with Hanson fleeing into the adjoining bush on seeing the approaching team.
He narrated that the driver was rushed to the hospital, while they handed him over to the Ho Central Police and later arraigned in court but not without incessant torture in the hands of the Police, who doubted his innocent claims.
Subsequently, he was transferred to the Police Anti-Robbery Unit at the Police Headquarters, in Accra, where he was subjected to severe and dehumanizing torture in a three-day grueling thriller.
He said: “I was repeatedly tortured during interrogation and denied fair treatment and hearing, leading to the rapture of a surgery spot at his abdomen through continuous stamping from the Police torture squad. God actually saved me from death in the hands of those Police monsters.”
Frempong said after the alleged abuse, he was remanded into custody at the Ho Central Prison, where he became prison inmate for four years before being granted bail in 2009.
He told the GNA that throughout the four-year period in prison remand, he appeared in court only four times and was never given a meaningful opportunity to speak directly to the magistrate or confront the complainant, the driver, who had been taken to hospital for treatment.
Frempong said a breakthrough in his case occurred shortly before he was granted bail in 2009, when Hanson the alleged culprit, who stabbed the driver and fled the scene was later remanded at the Ho Central Prison on a different offence.
According to him, the suspect, while interacting with other inmates, allegedly narrated how he conspired with the driver to rob him of the money he possessed at the time of the incident.
Frempong said some inmates, who were aware of his good relationship and benevolent attitude towards fellow inmates, reported the suspect’s confession to prison officers.
He said the matter was subsequently brought to the attention of the then Deputy Director of Prisons (DDP), Mr Al-Hassan, (2008-2010), who also served as the Volta Regional Commander of Prisons.
According to Frempong, the prison commander took keen interest in the matter and assisted in communicating the new developments to the police for further investigation.
He said with the intervention of the Lawyer Ernest Gaewu, now a Supreme Court Judge and the support of the prison authorities, he was eventually granted bail in 2009 after spending four years in remand custody.
Frempong further disclosed that during his stay in prison, the then DDP directed officers to accord him humane treatment after listening to his account of the incident.
He said the prison commander became more interested in his situation after reading a letter of appeal and support he had written to the then Chief Justice, Mrs Georgina Theodora Wood.
Frempong described the support he received from some prison officers and legal practitioners during that period as instrumental in securing his eventual release on bail.
Frempong described the prolonged remand and treatment he suffered as degrading and inhumane, and said the experience had caused him lasting emotional, psychological and economic hardship.
He is therefore seeking compensation from the State for wrongful treatment, violation of his human rights and the years lost in remand custody.
Frempong is also calling on the Vice President Jane Naana Opoku Agyeman, Chair of the Police Council; Dr Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, the Attorney-General; the Interior Minister, Mr Muntaka Mohammed Mubarak; Mr Christian Tetteh Yohuno, the Inspector General of Police to as a matter of urgency investigate and cause the refund of his seized cash and personal belongings, which he claimed included two HP laptops and a mobile phone.
GNA
Edited by Maxwell Awumah/Benjamin Mensah