An unnamed police officer is facing accusations of forcefully removing the waist beads worn by a married woman during an operation that resulted in the arrest of her husband, identified as Sixtus Arthur.
The alleged incident has raised concerns about potential police misconduct and violation of personal belongings during law enforcement activities.
According to the woman, Veronica Arthur, she was with her husband in their room in the afternoon of Tuesday, July 11, 2023, when more than 15 men claiming to be policemen, budged in on them.
She said that the men then forcefully arrested her husband, and in the heat of the moment, one of the officers grabbed her by the waist and tore her waist beads, a report by 3news.com has said.
“We were sleeping around 1:00am when we heard a knock at the door. We opened the door and saw about 15 men claiming to be police officers.
“They forcefully entered our room and started searching for my husband. I was trying to talk to them but they kept pushing me away. I wanted to go out and pass urine but one of the officers held my waist, pulled me back, and tore my beads. I came back to the room and saw them manhandling my husband without any reason,” the distressed Veronica Arthur said in a radio interview.
The incident happened at Nkroful in the Western Region.
She also said that of all the men who came to their home, only one of them was in a police uniform.
“One of them was in uniform with a pump action gun. With the rest, some of them were holding spanners,” she added, the report said.
Also speaking on the matter, Naana Yaaba, the mother of Sixtus Arthur, added that they have so far been unable to trace the whereabouts of her son although they have combed a number of police stations.
“We have been to Central, Harbor, and Sekondi police stations to find out if he was sent there but all to no avail. We currently do not know where he has been taken to,” she also said.
The report added that while it is unclear what prompted the arrest, there are suspicions that the matter could be related to an ongoing chieftaincy issue, since Sixtus is said to be the secretary to the substantive chief, Nana Kobina Gyan II.