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Police Service slapped with ¢320k fine for officers negligence in shooting 3
The officers who were pursuing goat thieves from Twifo Praso fired into the thieves’ car. A stray bullet hit a moving taxi occupied by a couple and their daughter in the process.
The bullet hit and killed Josephine Owusuaa Aboagye, injured her husband, Aboagye Okyere, and a student on her way to school.
According to the plaintiffs, on January 10, 2019, at about 6:30 am, they were on board a taxi cab from Ankaful Junction in Cape Coast when they were shot at by the cops who said they were chasing robbers from Twifo Praso.
The bullet fired by the police strayed and hit Mary Aboagye who later died at the hospital, hit her husband, and hit one Cecilia Mensah, who was on her way to school.
Some bystanders rescued the victims and sent them to the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital where Mary Aboagye was pronounced dead. The other two victims, Cecilia Mensah and her father sustained varying degrees of injuries as a result of the bullet they received.
The defendants, the Ghana Police Service told the court it deployed five policemen from various police stations in the Central Region for police patrol duty at Darmang near Twifo Praso. Whilst on patrols, they had information that there was a BMW saloon car with four occupants suspected to be driving recklessly.
A few minutes later, the said BMW car approached the patrol team. The team signalled the driver to stop. However, he ignored the signals and sped off, nearly knocking down the policemen.
The team noticed that the passenger on the front seat was holding an AK 47 riffle. Accordingly, they notified all the police barriers from Twifo Praso to Cape Coast and proceeded to chase the said BMW car.
On the outskirts of Jukwa Senior High School, the suspected robbers then began firing at the police patrol vehicle with AK 47 rifle leaving the police no choice but to return fire.
A search conducted in the car revealed six live goats, one live sheep and five dead goats. They arrested the suspected robbers and sent them with the animals found in the car to the regional headquarters in Cape Coast where they made a situational report to their officers.
Justice Kwasi Boakye explained that the judgment was not meant to intimidate and lower the morale of the crime-fighting institutions such as the Police.
He urged the Inspector General of the Ghana Police Service (IGP) to take proactive steps to ‘Damparise’ the Service.
He noted that there was a dire need to undertake a complete overhaul or re-engineer the service as far as its professional training needs and competence are concerned. He made reference to a similar incident where some armed policemen in broad day, shot into an unregistered saloon car at Tamale, resulting in the death of one [1] of the occupants whereas the others sustained various degrees of injuries.
He consequently awarded the 1st plaintiff, the sum of One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Ghana Cedis (GHC150,000.00) lump sum as compensation and ordered the defendants to pay same having considered the following heads: future loss of earnings, nursing attendants, loss of amenities, loss of expectation of life and disability.
For Cecilia Mensah, the 3rd plaintiff, a student of the Academy of Christ The King SHS, the judge assessed compensation payable at ¢60,000 and ordered the defendants to pay same.
He also further awarded a lump sum payment of ¢100,000 to the estates of the deceased because her family member, Josephine Okyere, sued as a dependent of Mary Aboagye.
Source: www.myjoyonline.com
Ghana Tourism Authority is leading Ghana’s participation at ITB Berlin, which opened in Berlin with a vibrant national pavilion highlighting Ghana’s rich cultural heritage, tourism destinations and investment opportunities.
March 5 has been designated as Ghana Day, a special platform to promote Ghana’s languages, cuisine, Kente, festivals and business prospects to the global tourism community. The stand has already drawn strong interest with traditional arts and crafts displays, immersive multimedia presentations and popular Ghanaian snacks.
Seven private-sector players are exhibiting alongside government officials as part of efforts to deepen trade partnerships, expand market access, and attract investment across the hospitality, heritage tourism, ecotourism, and creative arts sectors.
Ahead of the official opening, the Ghana delegation also engaged young Ghanaian investors in Germany in collaboration with V Afrika-Verein and the Ghana Embassy, strengthening diaspora investment linkages and highlighting opportunities within the tourism value chain.
Ghana’s coordinated presence at ITB Berlin 2026 reinforces its strategy to position the country as the Gateway to Africa and a competitive destination for leisure travel and global investment.
The Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh Dompreh, has expressed concern over delays in the release of the District Assemblies Common Fund, warning that the situation is stalling development across the country.
On his facebook page, he described as a matter of urgent national importance, the Minority Chief Whip pointed to what he sees as a growing crisis of unpaid contractors, abandoned projects, and halted infrastructure works in many districts.
He noted that several communities are grappling with half completed schools, unfinished health facilities, abandoned markets, deteriorating roads, and stalled sanitation projects.
According to him, many contractors who have executed projects for district assemblies have not been paid, forcing some construction firms to demobilise from sites while workers lose their jobs.
He stressed that the District Assemblies Common Fund is not a discretionary allocation but a constitutional requirement under Article 252 of the 1992 Constitution, intended to support development at the local level.
In his view, years of delayed releases and accumulated arrears have weakened district development financing and disrupted projects meant to improve living conditions in communities.
He further argued that some payments made in recent years were largely the settlement of old debts rather than funding for new or ongoing projects, a situation he believes has affected contractor confidence and local economic activity.
He described the issue as more than a budgetary challenge, characterising it as a development emergency and a governance concern.
He therefore urged the appropriate authorities to pay outstanding DACF arrears, settle contractors who have completed their work, and ensure that transfers to districts are automatic and predictable.
He maintained that decentralisation can only succeed when district assemblies receive adequate and timely funding to carry out development projects.
He emphasised that stalled projects directly affect ordinary citizens, since they rely on such infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, sanitation, and economic activities.
He called for renewed attention to grassroots development, insisting that national progress should not be concentrated only in major cities but extended to all communities.
By: Jacob Aggrey
