An entrepreneur who allegedly assaulted a police officer in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region, was on Monday October 22, remanded into Navrongo prison custody. Jonathon Atua on Thursday October 18, allegedly assaulted General Corporal Lawrence Partey at the SSNIT Traffic intersection when a scuffle ensued between the two.
Prosecuting, Sergeant Daniel Opoku, told the magistrate court in Bolgatanga on Monday presided over by His Lordship Osman Abdul-Hackeem that the victim was on duty at the SSNIT traffic intersection where he spotted an overloaded tricycle.
The prosecutor said after the victim, popularly known as Beautiful, ordered the tricycle operator to stop and he obliged, the victim was approaching the operator when the accused person who was around V3 Transport station very close to the scene, also signaled the operator to go.
This did not go down well with the police officer who tried to find out why the accused person did that but he (the accused) confronted him and unleashed slaps on him, held his neck with the uniform and headed him on his left cheek landing him on the ground leading to further head injuries.
He went into coma and was rushed to the regional hospital in Bolgatanga where he is responding to treatment.
Lawyer for the accused, Anthony Namoo, dismissed the account of the prosecutor that it was his client who first slapped the police officer. Rather, Mr. Namoo told the court that it was the police officer who slapped his client and held him and in the process to disentangle himself from the police officer, the officer fell down and sustained injuries.
Though he stated the act of engaging a public officer in uniform by his client was wrong, Lawyer Namoo also dismissed claim by the prosecutor that the accused person headed the cheek of the police officer.
Though he tried as he could to get bail for his client by assuring the court he would not jump bail after he was earlier granted police inquiry bail on Sunday before appearing in court on Monday, the lawyer failed. He also said his client has not committed any crime and has no criminal records and could not have interfere or influence police investigation.
However, Prosecutor Opoku, got his plea granted by His Lordship Abdul-Hackeem, when he told the court that the victim who was earlier discharged from the hospital had a blackout on Sunday and was again rushed back to the hospital.
The prosecutor, therefore argued that he needed the victim to recover for him to adduce some facts from him to back his investigations.
Subsequently, the judge remanded the accused person into Navrongo Prison custody to reappear on Thursday October 25, 2018.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1FM|Ghana
