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Sogakope murder: Angry locals storm police station, block roads; cops fire shots

By:brightwebtv.com/Nana asare barimah

The police had to fire warning shots to control and keep the crowd at bay

Residents in Sogakope in the Volta Region on Monday stormed the local police station in anger over the killing of the Assemblyman for Sogakope South Electoral Area, Mr Marcus Mawutor Adzahli.

They were joined in solidarity by some residents of Sokpe, a neighbouring town, to express their anger at the police for not responding swiftly to distress calls by the Assemblyman before his murder.

The police had to fire warning shots to control and keep the crowd at bay.

Prior to storming the police station, the protesters blocked the Aflao-Accra road at the end of the Lower Volta bridge at Sogakope just as they did on Sunday.

Meanwhile the District Chief Executive of the area has put a GHS10,000 bounty on the killers of Mr Adzahli.

Meanwhile, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Volta Regional Police Command, Corporal Prince Dogbatse, has said the police has begun an inquiry to establish if the Sogakope command unduly delayed in responding to distress calls regarding the attack.

The newly-elected assemblyman was stabbed and shot dead, along with his wife, by unknown assassins in his private residence

Residents indicated that the attackers entered the couple’s bedroom and stabbed them first and later shot the man in the head.

The wife survived the attack with multiple knife wounds.

Eyewitnesses who spoke to Class News’ Regional Correspondent, Albert Kuzor, said the incident happened at about 1 a.m. on Sunday, 1 March 2020, but the widow managed to contact the police and neighbours after the assailants fled.

The widow later fell into coma and rushed to the Sogakope district hospital while the body of the deceased has been deposited at the same hospital.

Speaking in an interview with Benjamin Akakpo on the Executive Breakfast Show on Class91.3FM on Monday, 2 March 2020, Corporal Dogbatse reiterated that the police has commenced investigations into the homicide while the wife of the deceased is responding to treatment.

Corporal Dogbatse said: “First of all, let me say that, yes, the man is dead, the wife currently is in a stable condition. She’s not in coma.”

The Volta Regional police PRO, however, refuted assertions by some residents that the police delayed by 45 minutes in responding to the distress calls.

He stated: “Regarding the issue of how swift the police responded [to the homicide], the Deputy Regional Commander was at the Sogakope District Police yesterday. I [PRO] was there myself and the Deputy Regional Commander engaged the youth, majority of whom have this concern that you’re sharing and the command has taken a very serious view of that concern and, so, we have made some contacts and we would do an inquiry into that because we believe that with our mandate of providing security, no police officer must unduly delay when there’s the need for them to execute their mandate.”

Responding to residents of Sogakope who alleged that the Police in the area do not respond swiftly to distress calls from residents, Corporal Dogbatse assured them that an inquiry will be conducted to verify that concern.

“What we’re saying is that, yes, we have had such concerns raised by a section of the youth who the commander had engaged yesterday. And the position of the command is that we have taken a serious view of that concern and we’re going to do an inquiry into that to establish if the police were called and they had unduly delayed.

“It is important that we really find out what may have resulted in the delay as the public are asserting, but we believe that our men only responded at the time they had the information.”

Source: classfmonline.com

 

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