Police Compensate Family With Gh150,000 for Killing Simon Nawak Laayame But Fails to Apologise.

The Ghana Police Service have compensated the family of the late Simon Laayame of Sheaga, who was wrongfully accused as a member of a robbery squad that attacked a shop and killed two police officers in Zuarumgu with Gh150,000.00, a family source has disclosed.

The special Anti-Robbery squad of the Ghana police sevice assisted by the Upper East Regional police command on 18th December, 2021 chased and shot a 34 years old unarmed husband of three at a drinking spot in Kpatia in the Talensi District, killing him on the spot with the justification that he was allegedly involved in the murder of two police officers in Zuarungu by unidentified armed robbers in the same month.

The Youth and family members of Sheaga and nearby towns in Talensi, in a press conference on 21st December, 2021 condemned the the Police’s killing of Mr. Simon and denied the allegation of the involvement of their son in the robbery incident in Zuarungu.

“The Innocent man killed is known to everyone in the community and beyond as a very humble soul, peace maker and the bread winner of his extended family. He has no criminal record of any form to the best of our knowledge and we challenge anyone including the killers to provide contrary evidence to this fact.”

““If the Intel we have gathered is true that the police want to link his murder to the recent killing of the two police officers at the market square in Zuarungu on the 15th December last week is anything to go by, we want to state emphatically without any equivocation that the gentleman was on duty at work based on the records of the mining company, Earl Mining Group.”

The youth then made some demands of the police and government including constituting a team to investigate the circumstances leading to the killing of the late Simon, compensation for the family, the police halt the brutalities meted out to community members.

“1. Government to constitute an independent investigation committee to probe into the killing by making sure that community opinion leaders must form part of the constituted committee.2. The family of the bereaved especially his children and the widows must be taken care of by way of compensation for life.3. The police must halt the impunity foisted/exploited on youth and people of Talensi.4. The police must halt the unlawful brutalities meted on us law abiding citizens.5. The IGP must with immediate effect call his men to order on these excesses; extortions of money from riders, brutalities of youth, unlawful search of people homes etc.”

At a burial ceremony organised in Sheaga on Saturday 4th June, 2023, to bury the body of the late Simon Laayame after about two years, the family disclosed that after investigations by the police, they admitted to wrongfully killing of the deceased and have compensated the family with Gh150,000.00.

” After the investigations, the police have compensated the family with Gh150,000.00. The Tongraan proposed the Gh150,000.00 and the recruitment of two family members of the deceased into the police service.”

Mr. Nawak Moses, a brother to the deceased said though the money has been paid, the family is not satisfied because the police have failed to honour all the agreement that was reached between the family and the service.

“The most surprising thing is that they were aware of the arrangement of the funeral but when we got to the Morgue to pick the body, we were told to pay the bills ourselves which was over Gh37,000.00. Are they saying we should take part of that to foot the mortuary bills? So this Gh150,000.00 is not even enough.”

” The things they promised to do, they have failed to do it so we are still demanding for justice as family. As part of the agreement, the IGP was to send a delegation to come to the family to apologise, recruit two family members of the deceased into the service, release the corpse and assist us to bury but they have not done any of this apart from the Gh150,000.00 so we are not happy. Have yoou seen any police officer here? None of them was also at the morgue yesterday when we went to pick the body”

Though there has been an investigation into the murder of Mr. Simon Laayame and admission of fault from the police for negligence on the part of the police leading to the shooting and killings of the 34 years old man of which payment of compensation has beenmade, the police have been titliped about the outcome of the investigations.

The Ghana Police Service has also failed to publicly apologise to the family and the public for wrongfully accusing the deceased as an armed robber just as it published on its social media platform,Facebook.

Also, the public has been left in the dark as to what disciplinary actions has been taken or will be taken against the police officers who carried out the crime leading to the death of the deceased who was married to three wives.

By:Simon Agana Blessing/mywordfmonline.com

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