COPS FLEE ...As rampaging youth storm police station (Lead story)

Story: Kwame Asare Boadu, Kumasi

POLICEMEN at the Akomadan Police Station in the Ashanti Region were yesterday forced to flee their duty post to escape the wrath of the rampaging youth of the area.
The angry youth, after chasing the policemen out of the station, entered the charge office, destroyed furniture, windows and doors estimated at thousands of cedis.
The anger of the youth was reported to have stemmed from the shooting to death of a suspected illegal timber operator by a policeman near Akomadan last Wednesday.
Police Constable Aryee of the Akomadan Police Station allegedly shot and killed Yaw Agyen in a moving KIA truck while he and others were conveying logs of teak from Nkenkansu to Akomadan.
The mob, who arrived from the two towns in a number of trucks, injured one policeman, Sergeant Kennedy Frimpong, in the attack before destroying various property.
Meanwhile, the Akomadan District Police Commander, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Francis Zangina, has told the Daily Graphic on telephone that the police have knowledge of where Constable Aryee is hiding and so they will move to bring him to the station to assist in investigations into the killing.
Constable Aryee sent his AK 47 rifle back to the police station before going into hiding.
Giving preliminary facts into the incident, ASP Zangina said Constable Aryee had been on night duty at the camp of a construction company on the main Akomadan-Nkenkansu road last Wednesday.
In the night, a KIA truck, loaded with teak logs from a forest reserve, pulled up from the Nkenkansu end of the road.
Constable Aryee signalled the driver to stop but the driver ignored him and the policeman opened fire, which hit Agyen, who was sitting on top of the logs.
ASP Zangina stated that although the bullet hit Agyen, the driver did not stop to attend to the victim but sped off.
The district commander said Constable Aryee managed to return to the police station that night and handed his weapon to the office orderly, without informing anybody of what had happened. He then went into hiding and had since not been found.
The commander said the body of the deceased was to be sent to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital for autopsy.
ASP Zangina stated that in the morning of yesterday, truck loads of youth beating war drums besieged Akomadan to attack the police station. In the process, the Police Sergeant was injured and property destroyed.
Reinforcement was called in from Offinso to help contain the situation.
When contacted, ACP Seth Oteng, the acting Ashanti Regional Police Commander, confirmed the incident and said all efforts would be made to investigate the matter to its conclusion to enable the police to take the necessary action.