THE New Patriotic Party (NPP) has called for an independent body to undertake post-mortem on the body of Mr Ahmed Maikanka, an activist of the party who died after he had been allegedly brutalised by the police.
The party alleged that the police were the culprits in the case and could, therefore, not be those to perform the post-mortem on the deceased.
The General Secretary of the NPP, Nana Ohene Ntow, who made the call at a news conference in Accra yesterday, said he personally witnessed the police brutalising Maikanka.
He said what he witnessed and the account of other party faithful of the “brutal” assault and the stamping of the victim with the boots of police officers last night would critically challenge any police medical report that might suggest that Mr Maikanka could have died of natural cause.
He stated that the NPP was of the firm belief that it would be in the interest of even the police establishment that the examination of the cause of Mr Maikanka’s death was done in such a transparent manner to save the police from any public suspicion or even direct accusation of wrongdoing.
Mr Maikanka was one of the many NPP supporters who gathered at the precincts of the Greater Accra Regional office of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) last Thursday evening when Mr Stephen Asamoah Boateng, a former Minister of Information in the Kufuor regime, was arrested by the BNI.
They were alleged to have burnt vehicle tyres and blocked the main road, a situation which culminated in the police firing tear gas and live bullets to disperse the crowd.
Mr Maikanka was alleged to have been brutalised by the police which resulted in his death later.
The NPP General Secretary wondered why the police would rush to claim the body from the family when the deceased did not pass away in police custody and asked if the police were “now going round collecting dead bodies for post-mortem examination at the police hospital”.
“We think that given the allegation levelled against the police in the role they are said to have played in the death of Maikanka, any medical report coming from the same authority, who are being accused, is most likely to be met with suspicion. The credibility of such a report could therefore be seriously undermined,” he added.
Nana Ntow said the party strongly objected to the post-mortem examination on Maikanka’s body being done by the police.
He said even if the police had already conducted the examination, the party insisted that the body be exhumed and a second and independent opinion, preferably from the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, sought.
Nana Ntow explained that the performance of the examination by the independent body for the purpose of validating or contradicting the police autopsy report must be conducted in the presence of medical witnesses of all interested parties, being the police, the family of the late Maikanka and the NPP.
He also called on the government to arraign Mr Asamoah Boateng at a court of competent jurisdiction without delay, if the BNI had any case against him.
Nana Ntow added that if the BNI had secured an arrest warrant and the person had been arrested, then there was no justification for him to be in custody for the maximum 48 hours.
“The NPP is not saying that if any member of the party has gone against the law, he or she ought to be shielded. What we are vehemently opposed to is the abuse of power, disregard for proper procedure, a disregard of the rights of citizens and a lack of respect for the rule of law, as such acts would be fiercely resisted by the party,” Nana Ntow stressed.
*Portrait of Nana Ohene Ntow, NPP General Secretary.
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