Evans Obuaba Laud, an electrician who is facing a charge of murder for allegedly striking his mother to death with a pestle at Sakumono, a couple of weeks ago, has been handcuffed and tied to a metal container near the Sakumono Estate police station instead of being kept in police cells.
The murder suspect, according to the Sakumono police, is deranged and therefore could not be kept in the same cells with other inmates.
According a police source, the suspect was handcuffed to the container after injuring some of the inmates at the police station shortly after arriving from a court which remanded him into police custody to get enough time for investigation into the death of his mother.
Obuaba Laud, a 24-year-old electrician, is facing murder charges after allegedly striking his 68-year-old mother to death with pestle at Sakumono near Tema.
The suspect was said to have committed the crime after his mother, Mamley Segbefia, had allegedly rebuked him for using narcotic substances and misbehaving in the house.
Superintendent Alex Wowolo, Sakumono District Police Commander, confirmed that the suspect was indeed handcuffed to the said container and attributed that to the lack of a facility within the area to detain a violent suspect.
Mr Wowolo told Daily Guide that Evans was said to have started behaving like a mentally-challenged person soon after killing his mother, before Police moved in and arrested him.
The police officer maintained that the police had no option but to quickly arraign him so as to have him placed under custody legally.
He said that it was not true that the suspect had injured other inmates. He rather pointed out that soon after getting the court to place him under custody, the police, realizing the mental status of Evans, quickly moved him to the container where he was handcuffed to a container.
He said Evans was initially sent to a psychiatric facility in Accra but was brought back to the station on the advice of a psychiatrist at the facility.
According to the superintendent, the suspect might have been assaulted by some of the residents of his area when the news of his mother's murder broke.
"We sent him to a psychiatric in Accra and we were told to bring him back here until he feels better then we can send him again for treatment," Wowolo remarked and quickly noted that the suspect would be sent back to the psychiatric facility next week, by which time he was expected to have recovered from the serious assault he suffered at the hands of some of the residents.
Asked if the suspect was well kept at his current location, the police officer stated that Evans was always fed well and moved from there any time it was about to rain.
The police boss added that the Sakumono police like all police personnel nationwide, protected citizens and always ensured that there was peace and order.
It would be recalled that Evans was arrested after striking his mother to death with a pestle. The mother was said to have chided him for his errant behavior. He was reported to have on the same day, at about 10:30pm, gone to his mother's room and without any provocation, hit her in the neck with the pestle several times resulting in her death.
His unnamed mother reportedly bled profusely from the' mouth and nostrils and was said to have died later before some residents of the area could arrive at the scene.
A male resident, who was said to have chanced upon the scene and tried raising the alarm, was reportedly bitten on the lower lip by the suspect and was rushed to the Tema General Hospital for treatment.
Evans was subsequently arrested by the police.
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