Two people have been arrested in Kumasi for raising an alarm that nearly led to the lynching of a 72-year-old retired lecturer of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

The alarm was raised by one of the sus¬pects who claimed that the old man had caused his penis to shrink, attracting an angry mob at the Roman Hill area in Kumasi.

In a matter of seconds, Dr Kwaku Asaku Gyapong, the retired lecturer, was surrounded by a mob, some wielding sticks and stones, who started manhandling him.

What saved the retired lecturer was the timely appearance of some policemen from the Kumasi Zongo Police Station who shielded him from the mob.

The policemen then arrested Joseph Mbah, 35, who had raised the alarm, and Kwabena Mankore, 29, his accomplice, and whisked them to the police station where they were immediately processed for medical examination to ascertain the truth or otherwise of their claim.

The examination, conducted by doctors at the Manhyia Government Hospital in Kumasi, proved Mbah had a normal penis and that it had not suffered any shrinkage as he claimed.

The Zongo District Police Commander, ASP Joseph Magamsi, who briefed this reporter, said after the medical examination, the two suspects apologised. Mbah then explained that he had felt his penis shrinking after bumping into Dr Gyapong.

The police said Mbah would be provisionally charged for raising a false alarm, while Mankore would be charged for abetment.

ASP Magamsi said the police were conducting further investigations into the matter to ascertain the actual intention of the suspects, after which a substantive charge would be preferred against them in court.

Giving an account of events prior to the incident, ASP Magamsi said Dr Gyapong, who had also lectured at the Ife University in Nigeria, had sent his daughter to the eye centre at the Roman Cathedral in the area for an eye check on December 3, this year.

At 1.30 p.m., Dr Gyapong decided to go to Kejetia to attend to the call of nature because there was no toilet facility at the Roman Cathedral where he was.

It was when he was descending the Roman Hill that Mbah ran into him and suddenly raised the alarm that attracted the mob.

ASP Magamsi noted that the incidence of lynching in the Kumasi metropolis was on the increase, the same way that robbery, stealing, pilfering and snatching of mobile phones were increasing, a situation which he said had often resulted in the death of many innocent people.

He asked the public to desist from taking the law into their own hands to mete out instant punishment and expressed the hope that the public would learn from what nearly befell the retired lecturer and be discouraged from killing people on mere suspicion.

A number of incidents in which people have been lynched have occurred in the city since last year, notably at Kejetia, the Roman Hill area, Adum, Asafo, Amakom, Dichemso, Afful Nkwanta and Ash Town, all suburbs of Kumasi.

ASP Magamsi said "not only were victims beaten to death but, in some of the cases, some of the victims were tied to poles and burnt".

He cautioned that the law would deal ruthlessly with anybody caught visiting such an ordeal on suspects and advised the public against such practices.


Source: Daily Graphic