A concerned resident of Agogo in the Ashanti Region, has condemned the brutal torture of a 16-year-old suspected thief in the town.
The teenage boy, name withheld, was seen and heard in a video shouting very loudly for mercy while some men inserted a long and thick stick into his anus.
The boy, who was suspected to have stolen from a shop belonging to one of the attackers, was seen being gripped firmly to the ground as they made sure the stick had properly entered his anus.
The helpless boy did not return home after the ordeal, and his mother, after searching for him without success, reported him missing to the Police.
While the police mounted a search for him, the video, which captured him tied with a stick being inserted into his anus went viral.
The concerned Agogo resident, Ernest Kofi Owusu-Bempah, in a statement said, “I find the action of the perpetrators of this atrocious crime as very barbaric and one that greatly dims the nation’s human rights record.”
He said the suspect should have been handed over to the police and law enforcement agencies for the necessary action.
“For citizens to take the law into their own hands and carry out such instant justice is quite appalling and medieval. That they apprehended him stealing does not in any way warrant branding him as a notorious thief who deserved to be subjected to such an ordeal. It is very disheartening that in this day and age, we would rather visit instant justice on alleged thieves than handing them over to law enforcement agencies,” the statement added.
He called on traditional authorities and “every right-thinking Agogo resident to condemn this barbarous act in no uncertain terms.”
“The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice(CHRAJ) and the Ministry of Gender and Social Protection must as a matter of urgency step in and deal with the matter head-on” he added.
He also demanded that the Agogo District Police Command expedites investigations into the matter and have the perpetrators dealt with as prescribed by law.
Meanwhile, a 79-year-old man, Francis Amoako, and five others, have been remanded by the Agogo District Court for their alleged roles in the act.
They are to reappear in court on Tuesday, July 27, 2021.
