The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of the Kassena-Nankana Municipality, Joseph Adongo, has invited Henry Ayeng, the St. Bernadette’s Technical Institute teacher who was reportedly arrested and brutalised by some police officers on 14 May 2023, for a meeting in the capital, Navrongo.
The invitation follows a petition lodged with the Municipal Education Oversight Committee (MEOC) by Ayeng, a member of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), after he was allegedly beaten and handcuffed in front of his children before he was dragged from his bungalow on the school’s campus to the district police station in Navrongo.
One of the police personnel is said to have thumped the Health teacher on his chest with his service boots as the torture continued behind the counter of the police station.
The old GNAT member would tell Media Without Borders later in an interview how he felt one of his ribs got broken after the law enforcer booted him in the ribcage region.
The police also arrested three students who were found at his residence at the time and reportedly brutalised them from the campus all the way to the station.
Eyewitnesses say one of the students fainted while he was being tortured at the police station, the development prompting the uniformed perpetrators to pour water on him in a bid to resuscitate him.
Ayeng’s eldest son, Media Without Borders also learns, was slapped and beaten during the early-morning raid.
The teacher said the policemen told him, while he was being handcuffed, that he was being arrested for “harbouring criminals”.
The only people found at his residence at the time, aside from his children, were the three students.
The students, according to eyewitnesses, had spent the night there after assisting the teacher in giving first aid to more than 15 schoolgirls who fainted on the campus after a police squad fired tear gas canisters into the school to quell a weekend riot on 13 May 2023.
The MCE, who also presides over MEOC in the area, told Media Without Borders on Friday he had visited the school to obtain a firsthand account of the matter before he scheduled the meeting with the petitioner.
“I had to go to the campus to also find out what was on the ground,” said the MCE. “And I heard there was a meeting with the staff among other things.”
“I have called the teacher. I met him briefly after the meeting with the management. I want to hear from him before I call the members of MEOC to look at it. I’m expecting him today.”
On Friday, Ayeng and some GNAT members held a meeting with the Paramount Chief of Navrongo, Pε Asagepaare II, on the alleged police brutality. The meeting also touched on the recent riot.
“Our meeting with the paramount chief was to inform him about the happenings in the school and to draw his attention to the need to have a committee instituted to look into these happenings,” Ayeng said.
“Most of the teachers in the school are now anxious because of the police brutalities we often experience when there is a problem in the school,” he added.
Watch Henry Ayeng and some of the students in the video below as they share their experiences:
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana
