Hundreds of residents of Nana Fodoo Krofrom, a suburb of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, are protesting the brutalisation of a 22-year-old man by the police leading to his death.  

The victim, Osei Tawiah is reported to have been beaten and tasered to death by some policemen Thursday, May 26.

Narrating the incident to Joy News’ Erastus Asare Donkor, an eyewitness said the police were chasing two men who were on a motorbike. The deceased was then inside a public toilet. When he stepped out the police confronted him, suspecting he was one of the two riders they were pursuing.

The eyewitness said the police immediately started beating him with the butt of their guns as well as using tasers to subdue him. 

He said not even the pleas of some residents for the police to treat the man with dignity yielded any results. The police continued their assault until Tawiah dropped and fell unconscious.  

They took the body to the Manhyia Hospital and deposited the body without going through the necessary paperwork.

A resident and friend of the deceased could not control his tears.

“We are sad because of the death of my innocent friend,” he said adding they have decided to protest for “everybody to know what the police have done.”

On her part, mother of the deceased said her son has neither been arrested or involved in any crime before.

“I have taken care of the boy and all you did was to kill him,” she said in Twi.

The angry residents say they want the police out of the area.

They also want the Ashanti Regional Police Commander, DCOP Kofi Boakye, to personally intervene and hold the errant police officers to account.

More soon…