Lebanese Expatriates Assault Police

Police officers at the Tema Regional Head office have boycotted their duties due to the inability of authorities to cause the arrest of some Lebanese expatriates who assaulted and stabbed some officers on duty recently. The Police officers have decided to shirk their duties until the authorities respond to and act on their request to arrest some Lebanese employees, over the recent fire that gut BBC Company in Tema. The reason for their agitation was simply for the fact that they no longer felt safe in undertaking of their duties as police officers due to the 16th January brutal assault on them by the Lebanese at the said company. Speaking to the New Crusading Guide newspaper in an exclusive interview, leader of the investigative team that was sent to the premises of the company on 16th January, Chief Inspector Ntiamoah, said they were instructed to take pictures of the properties and items that had been destroyed by the fire. �I led a team of four Police Officers to the BBC factory. They were Inspector Addo, Detective Sergeant Christian Adzakpo, and Lance Corporal Bright Kumah�, the investigator stated. On reaching the factory premises, Chief Inspector Ntiamoah recalled, they went to the office of the company administrator, stated their mission and requested her permission to carry on with their duty, to which she obliged. �We took pictures of the damage the fire had caused and on completion of our duty; we went back to the office of the administrator to tell her we were leaving the factory site as courtesy demanded�, he noted. The Chief Inspector narrated that when they got to the office of the lady administrator, a half Ghanaian and Lebanese, she accused Sergeant Adzakpo who had been detailed to take the pictures of taking a picture of her and therefore, moved to seize the official Police camera. Chief Inspector averred that in spite of aggressive efforts by the administrator to seize the camera, Sergeant Adzakpo refused ��and tried to show her all the pictures he had taken in a bid to convince her that her image had not been captured but she wouldn�t understand�. �At that moment we were surrounded by about 20 Lebanese expatriate staff of the company including their managing director, Lebanese expatriate. I immediately told my officers to flee into the official police car which they did; leaving me with the managing director of the company, and the administrator. Some of the workers began to slap me here and there. In fact they beat me. In the course of the beatings, one of the workers removed a dagger from his pocked and attempted to stab me. On seeing that I began to run. He made about three or four attempts to stab me with the dagger but I dodged all and managed to enter the police vehicle outside the factory walls�, he told this paper. Sergeant Adzakpo who at that time was standing about 50 metres from the factory gate taking pictures was allegedly beaten mercilessly after he was given a hot chase. Chief Inspector Ntiamoah said �we all rushed to the scene again but on reaching there we realized one of the workers had stabbed his face with a sharp knife and blood was oozing out from the cut. They also took the camera from him and removed two micro chips containing vital and secret data�. He continued �We then rushed to the Ghana Ports and Harbors Authority hospital where the two of us were treated. I was treated and discharged the same day but Sergeant Adzakpo was admitted for almost two days before he was discharged�. The Chief Inspector noted that a written report to the Crime Officer Philip Alubo and DCOP Atingane did not yield any response saying that �We are therefore appealing to the high office of the Inspector General of Police to institute investigations into the case.� When contacted on telephone, the crime officer Philip Alubo declined to comment on the issue. He told the New Crusading Guide, that �I�m not the one investigating the issue; talk to the one who gave my number to you. I cannot say anything about this issue�.