AN 11-year-old pupil of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Primary and Junior High School in Kumasi had a traumatic experience on Thursday when he was allegedly detained and tortured by Nana Akwasi Agyeman, an Ashanti royal.
The longest serving Chief Executive of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), purportedly detained Aaron Okyem Djan in his house for allegedly beating his five-year-old son, Nana Kwame.
Nana Okumkom, as he is affectionately called, reportedly took the JHS form one pupil through a harrowing experience at his plush Krofrom residence, a Kumasi suburb. Akwasi Agyeman was said to have detained the young boy for almost four hours at his house, where he made the victim sit in the rain and also allegedly pointed a gun at him.
Nana Akwasi Agyeman had flatly denied the allegation in an interview, stressing that he was not ‘mad’ to detain such a young boy in his house for allegedly beating his son. “This is a fabricated story being pushed by my opponents to discredit me, because I do not understand why I should detain a young boy who is not a criminal in my house as being alleged,” he said.
Nana Akwasi Agyeman noted that he only called Aaron to his house to advise him against beating his son or any other child he went to school with, stressing that he had ordered the police to arrest the parents of the boy, who were spreading the false information about him.
The Tafo/Pankrono Divisional Police, who were investigating the alleged incident, had confirmed the story to Daily Guide but indicated that investigations were still ongoing.
The Divisional Police Commander, Superintendent Kwaku Buar told Daily Guide in a telephone interview that his outfit was yet to invite Nana Akwasi Agyeman to write his statement, disclosing that the victim had already written his. Akwasi Agyeman was alleged to have ordered the school boy to raise his hands up, whilst directing his five-year-old boy to shoot at his school mate at close range in a mock execution, as revenge for the beating he suffered.
His wife was said to have quickly intervened and restrained the five-year-old boy from heeding the directive of his father.
Aaron Djan, according to reports, regained his freedom at about 8:30pm only after the sister of Nana Akwasi Agyeman had personally intervened, begging her brother to forgive and forget. Before allowing the young boy to regain his freedom, the taxi driver who conveys the victim as well as Nana Akwasi Agyeman’s son to and from school each day, had begged for forgiveness but to no avail.
Even before the former Kumasi Mayor allowed the victim to go after his sister’s intervention, Nana Akwasi Agyeman allegedly ordered the boy to crawl on his knees and apologize to his son.
This was not until Nana Okumkom had purportedly fired several gunshots in the air to ostensibly heighten the fear of the young boy who was yet to recover from the traumatic experience as at Saturday.
The incident, according to sources, occurred when the taxi driver was as usual taking the pupils from school to the house, and Nana Kwame allegedly stamped Aaron Djan.
Unhappy about the behaviour of Nana Kwame, Aaron was said to have hit the shoulder of the former Mayor’s son, which made the latter cry profusely. When Nana Kwame alighted from the cab and was crying uncontrollably at about 4:30 pm, his father, Nana Akwasi Agyeman who was at home, reportedly enquired what was amiss.
When his son told him that he had been beaten by Aaron, he was said to have directed the taxi driver to bring Aaron to his house, after which he allegedly detained and manhandled the boy.
Source: Daily Guide
