POLICE CIVILIANS CLASH AT OFANKOR (BACK PAGE)

15/02/08
Story: Mary Mensah
There was a fierce clash between loaders at the MUUS Timber Market at Ofankor and the police following the death of one of their colleagues who was hit by a stray bullet from a shot fired by a member of the National Forestry Task Force in the early hours of yesterday.
The deceased, Ebenezer Asare, 22, was hit in the forehead by the bullet while sleeping by the roadside while another loader, Kojo Effah, 19, also sustained a gunshot wound in the left eye and was rushed to the Nsawam Government Hospital for treatment.
The irate loaders, incensed by the death of their colleague, barricaded the main Accra Nsawam road for more than three hours by burning lorry tyres at all the intersections on the road.
They also pelted the police vehicles which were dispatched to the scene with stones, smashing the windscreens of two vehicles.
It took a combined team of over 200 police personnel drawn from the Rapid Deployment Unit, Highway Patrol Unit, Accra Regional Police Command and the Tesano Police together with the National Fire Service to bring the situation under control.
The police threw tear gas and fired warning shots in order to disperse the crowd to enable the fire service to put out the fires on the road and allow free flow of traffic.
Fourteen suspects have so far been arrested to assist the police with their investigations.
According to Nana Adjei Badu, Chairman of the Timber Sellers Association, the forestry task force intercepted a cargo truck on the outskirts of Nsawam and were escorting it to their office at the Achimota Forest.
He said the driver said members of the task force had collected money from him so when he was asked to drive to the office he refused and on reaching MUUS he decided to branch into the yard.
He said a soldier among the task force fired three warning shots but that did not deter the driver who parked by the side of the road and bolted.
The bullet hit 19-year-old Kojo Effah, a mate on the truck, and he was rushed to the Nsawam Government Hospital where he is said to be responding to treatment. Nana said after the shots the loaders were incensed so they started throwing stones at the task force and they left the scene.
He said all this while, they did not know that the bullet had killed their colleague who was sleeping in front of a shop at a distance of about 100 metres from the scene.
He said a tea seller, Ataa Asantewaa, first saw the deceased lying down in front of the shop and called out to him to wake up but he did not bulge so she left him and went away but at about 6:30 a.m. a colleague by name Nana Yaw shook him up but he realised the body was cold and when he removed the cloth covering his face he saw the bullet wound on his forehead and raised alarm.
The chairman explained that the loaders usually slept by the side of the road in order to jump on the vehicles as soon as they arrived at the yard to offload the logs.
For his part, the Director General of Operations of the Ghana Police Service, DCP Patrick Timbilla, said the situation had been brought under control.
He said the soldier who fired the shot had been arrested by the Forestry Department and he was yet to be handed over to the police to assist in investigations.