ACP Awuni Is A Walking Bomb

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*He Stole My Land At Gun Point” Cries Estate Developer As The Herald Release List of His High-Profile Victims*

An Accra-based Estate Developer, Eric Okpoti Wilson has described the Commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit MTTU as a walking bomb which sooner than will later explode in the faces of Ghanaians, causing an irreversible harm if he is not held in check by the police administration.

Mr. Wilson’s caution comes in the wake of ACP Angwutubuge Awuni’s admission that he lost his temper and directed his men to manhandle the Member of Parliament (MP) for Klorley Klottey Constituency and the immediate past Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Armah Ashitey, at one of the Biometric Registration centers within the MP’s constituency in Accra.

According to Mr. Wilson, the police officer who is a trained Public Relations practitioner from the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) has developed the notoriety for infringing on the law and quickly organising the media to come to his aid and project him rather as the victim.

Narrating his story as one of ACP Awuni’s victims, Mr. Wilson said the MTTU boss took his land from him at gunpoint, organized his policemen to beat him up severely, stealing his money of US$4,000 and GH¢100.00 and gold bracelet worth 10,000 pounds, only for him to go to the media to get stories done in his favour that he had rather been attacked by a drug baron in his house with a G3 gun.

According to Mr. Wilson, in 1995 his wife Linda Pinkra bought a piece of land at Dunkonaa near Mallam in the Greater Accra Region.

In fencing the land, Mr. Wilson said he realized that it (land) was right in front of the house of ACP Awuni, and he later put a one-room structure on it (land) for security purposes.

However, in November 2008, during one of his routine checks on the land, he realized that the one-room structure had been demolished and part of the fence wall broken down.

Just as he stood on the land wondering who could have trespassed on it, ACP Awuni emerged on his balcony, bare-chested and wielding a gun.

To his utter surprise, said Mr. Wilson, ACP Awuni ordered him to leave the land, claiming it was now his property; otherwise he (Awuni) will kill him.

Mr. Wilson said he protested and verbal exchanges ensued with ACP Awuni calling him a cocaine dealer. Meanwhile he had been able to record all that took place between them on video.

He said subsequently ACP Awuni reported him to the late ACP Yartey who was then the Commander of Dansoman Police Station.

Mr. Wilson said he appeared before Mr. Yartey and showed him the video recording of what transpired between them. Convinced that he (Wilson) had not erred in the matter, Yartey pushed for an amicable settlement where he (Wilson) was to meet Awuni at the Nima Divisional Police Station, which he was then commanding. For his safety, Mr. Yartey detailed two police personnel to accompany him to Awuni’s office.

According to Wilson, at Awuni’s office, about ten policemen on the orders of their boss assaulted him, handcuffed him and dragged him on the ground into a waiting van that sped off to the Accra Regional Police Station; ACP Awuni followed them in his private car.

Mr. Wilson said they did not meet the Accra Regional Police Commander so he was made to appear before his deputy at the time, ACP Bright Oduro.

ACP Oduro ordered that he be freed of the handcuffs, upon which he realized that he had lost his wallet containing US$4,000.00, GH¢100.00 and a gold bracelet worth £10,000.

He said Awuni complained that he (Wilson) had threatened to kill him with a G3 gun over his land, upon which ACP Oduro ordered that his house be searched.

At his house, the police broke his doors as he had left his keys in his car at the Nima police Station. However, the search produced only a machine gun for which he had a license, but not a G3 gun, a gun used only by the military. No cocaine was found in the house either.

That same day, he was bailed and his gun’s license given back to him. His production of the video recording that captured what happened on the land also convinced ACP Oduro that Awuni was misrepresenting what actually happened.

However, his request for a medical form for medical attention was not met, and he had to seek medical attention without it.

He said, he subsequently met the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Paul Tawiah Quaye and put the matter before him. Before then he had engaged the services of a lawyer to petition the IGP on the matter for ACP Awuni to be prosecuted under section 75 of the Criminal Code 1960.

The petition, which demanded the prosecution of the police personnel that assaulted him, a refund of his money, the retraction of the allegation in The Daily Giude and The Enquirer newspapers that he is a cocaine dealer, the payment of medical bills and compensation, was copied to the Office of the President, the National Security Co-ordinator, the Commissioner, the Commission for Human Rights, Nana Oye Lithur and ACP Awuni himself among others.

According to Mr. Wilson, the IGP directed DCOP Ofosu-Mensah Gyeabour, Director General of Welfare to handle the matter.

Subsequently he received a letter from DCOP Gyeabour, claiming that their investigations revealed that the land in question was sold to both of them on different occasions by two different people from the same family that claim they are owners of the land, therefore, further investigations must be made to determine the rightful owner.

The letter said the police investigations did not find any merit in Wilson’s claim that he was assaulted and got his money and bracelet stolen in the process.

Even though the land matter has not been settled, Wilson told The Herald that ACP Awuni is raising a storey-building on it in flagrant violation of natural justice.

Mr. Wilson is of the opinion that junior officers would have been long interdicted but it appears Awuni is untouchable regardless of blatant misconduct. He was emphatic that ex-Greater Accra Regional Minister’s petition or calls for a probe will go nowhere as the police hierarchy is afraid of Mr. Awuni.

Readers will recall that Mzbel, Ghana’s most controversial songstress, last year fell into the hands of ACP Awuni apparently on a trumped-up charge that the diminutive artist and some friends had assaulted a police officer.

The issue gave Mzbel a good bruise in the media but The Herald’s investigations, however, turned out that the police officer in question was hired by the in-law-to-be of Mzbel to disrupt a pending marriage between her son and the songstress.

Apart from Mr. Wilson, Nii Armah Ashitey and Mzbel, Accra Mayor Alfred Vanderpuye was at the receiving end of his tantrums in April, last year.

ACP Awuni heavily pounced on the Mayor saying he was “courting cheap publicity”, directing traffic at the problematic Tetteh Quashie Interchange in Accra.

He told Citi News “I think it is funny for the Accra Mayor to be directing traffic; two weeks ago my information is that he was calling the media to follow him to direct traffic so that he can get publicity, I think it is cheap publicity”.

ACP Awuni, fuming over the Accra Mayor’s act, opined that Mr. Vanderpuye may have been looking to give the police a bad name after his request for a police motorcade was denied.

“I can give you documents that he (Accra Mayor) applied to be given a motorcade to be able to weave through town and I refused him that’s why he’s doing what he’s doing now. If you like, send any of your men to come; I’ll give you a copy of the letter he wrote to me.

They, who are supposed to ensure that the traffic flows smoothly, want to ride in a motorcade, what does the ordinary person do?”

ACP Awuni said the Accra Mayor’s decision to “go on the streets and accuse the police of not doing their job is very bad, that is cheap publicity”.

According to ACP Awuni, the engineering aspect of the development of the city is the mandate of the Mayor and not directing traffic.

Interestingly, the Mayor’s action has since addressed the traffic situation to some extent. Parts of the road were barricaded, while some police officers were detailed to check drivers entering the city of Accra through that road.

Source: The Herald

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