Police Beat Students For Calling Them �Aban�

Fifteen Final year students of Afosu/Abirem Senior High School in the Birim North district of the Eastern region were rushed to the New Abirem Government hospital after they were allegedly brutally assaulted by the police. The students were punished for allegedly calling a police man �aban� a general name referred to the police by the public. According to the report, headmistress of the school, Anesthesia Owusu asked for police assistance to be present at the school to prevent any misbehavior by the students during their final days. On Monday, May 5 this year, a policeman whose name has not been disclosed yet, was said to have been detailed to go to the school. At the school, some of the students started calling him �aban�. This infuriated the policeman who asked the students to kneel down and raise their arms. When some of the students refused his order, the angry policeman called for re-enforcement and six of his colleagues rushed to the school fully armed and without any provocation, pounced on the helpless students leading to the injury of sixteen of them. The report said, the assistant headmaster of the school, William Boakye, who saw the brutality of the police on the students, asked the school driver to send the students to the Abirem police station for safety to avoid further beatings since he was invigilating and could not abandon his duty. The Abirem District police commander, Gyebeng Manu who told the Daily Heritage that he could neither confirm nor deny the story said he had traveled and met the students with the police at the police station and asked them (students) to write their names and return to the school. He further said, his men told him the students were planning to stage a demonstration against the headmistress, hence, their action but that statement has vehemently been denied by the students and some teachers of the school who described the action by the police as shocking and unfortunate. The Birim North district Chief Executive, Paul Aboagye Dadzie, the Chief of Abirem, Obrempong Kwasi Amo Kyeretwie and the Board Chairman of the school, Ofori Amanfo who heard about the incident, rushed to the school and when they saw the condition of the affected students, they sent them to the hospitals for treatment. At the hospital, one of the students, who was said to be an asthmatic patient allegedly collapsed which necessitated him to be detained at the hospital for some time with others treated and discharged. The Birim North District Director of Education, Eric Christian Atakorah who confirmed the story said a seven man committee led by the Adontenhene of Abirem, Nana Osam Takyi, had been set to investigate the matter and submit their finding to the authorities.