Give Me My Money �Ex-convict Tells Prisons

An ex-convict who was made to collect human waste for two years whilst in prison to generate some income to start a new life after his release, is accusing the Yendi Prison authorities of swindling him of GH300.000. He has consequently, appealed to the leadership of the Ghana Prisons Service to help him to retrieve his money. Now out of prison, Akwasi Kyeremateng, 39, said every month, �Ga Mantse� (as he is affectionately known), the second in-command of the Yendi Prison, where he served his term, collected GH10.00 from him promising to keep it for him. On his release on November 23, 2013, �Ga Mantse� did not give him the money, totaling GH300.00. Indeed, he had nothing, on him not even money for his transport fare, so his mother had to travel to Yendi to send him back to Kumasi. Kyeremanteng, told his story on Fox FM�s Nya Asem Hwe� programme, on April 2, 2014. Later in a conversation with 'The Spectator, Kyeremanteng disclosed he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on March 23, 2007 by the KMA Circuit Court, with a colleague, Mohammed Mustapha, for an alleged robbery following the discovery of a gun in Mustapha�s bag. He claimed he was transferred from the Kumasi Central Prison, to the Tamale Prison in 2009, for rebuking the wardens for maltreating another inmate. At the Tamale prison, he encountered problems with the warders on the meals served to prisoners for which reason he was again transferred to Yendi where �Ga Mantse� pushed him into the human waste collection business. Akwasi disclosed further that inmates especially, the old went through hell. He also revealed that sodomy goes on in the prisons, with the sale of Indian hemp being a big time business, with the connivance and involvement of some of the officers. The Kumasi Central Prison, when contacted, said records available confirmed Kyeremateng was an inmate there and he was transferred to Yendi, but, he had not made any formal complaint to any officer of the Prisons Service, except that the Service heard the allegations on air. However, the Ashanti Regional Public Relations Officer (PRO), Assistant Superintendent of Prisons (ASP) James Annan, explained that persons jailed in hard labour, are supposed to work and any money accrued is for the state. On whether Kyeremateng was made to collect human waste and GH10.00 collected by a second in command, the PRO found that as very strange and said an investigation had been launched into the matter to unearth the truth. ASP Annan said any money or property of an inmate had to be entered into the prisons property book which had always been there for records sake.