POLICE ACCIDENTALLY SHOOT BANK STAFFF (PAGE 40)

THE swift response by the Koforidua police to rescue their colleagues allegedly locked up and being subjected to assault by a mob in the yard of the Koforidua Timber Market last Friday, led to the shooting of a 36-year-old man.
Mr Francis Donkor, a staff of the Adonteng Rural Bank was hit by a stray bullet in the left thigh and the stomach when a shot fired into the ground by a policeman, deflected and hit him.
The victim, who had then closed from work and reached the scene when a passenger alighted from his taxi cab, when he was mistaken for one of the mob who had brutally assaulted members of the police patrol team.
He was reported to have screamed for help and was rushed to the Eastern Regional Hospital where he is responding to treatment.
Briefing the Daily Graphic about the incident, the Eastern Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mr George Anko-Bill, said at about 4.30 p.m. last Friday, a police patrol team on duty along the Suhyen-Nkurakan road, spotted a KIA truck loaded with timber products suspected to have been illegally acquired.
He said when the patrol team signalled the driver of the truck with registration number ER 88 B to stop, he refused and sped off but the police pursued the vehicle to the Koforidua Timber Market.
DCOP Anko-Bill said as soon as the KIA truck and the police vehicle entered the yard of the market, some of the traders locked up the main gate and pounced on the unarmed policemen, severely assaulting them.
He said the policemen, who had no means to escape, called for reinforcement but when the additional police personnel arrived, they could not get access to the market as the gate was closed.
“In an effort to rescue their kidnapped colleagues, a policeman fired a shot to deter the mob but the bullet deflected and mistakenly hit the victim”, DCOP Anko-Bill said.
The regional commander admitted that Mr Donkor was not part of the mob that pounced on the policemen, saying “he was only a victim of circumstances”.
He, therefore, expressed his outfit’s unreserved apology to Mr Donkor and his family.
DCOP Anko-Bill appealed to the public to help the police to protect the environment, especially the forests, stressing “We must not collude with people who fell trees illegally for their selfish interests”
When Daily Graphic contacted sources at the Timber Market, they stated that they had been instructed by the authorities at the place to always keep the main gate closed to prevent the police from entering the yard to conduct any operations.
“We, therefore, decided to shut the main gate when the KIA truck and the police vehicle entered the yard”, the sources stated, denying that a mob attacked the police patrol team.
The sources stated that when the police patrol team attempted to arrest the driver of the vehicle, one Kwabena Annan alias Taller, intervened but was severely assaulted by the policemen.
“When the police reinforcement arrived, they fired several warning shots cautioning that they will shoot anyone who will dare go the rescue of Taller”, they quoted one of the policemen as saying that.