Soldiers beat up owner of washing bay for asking them to pay for service

It has emerged that last Thursday’s bizarre spectacle at Wa where soldiers went on rampage and brutalized civilians over a missing mobile phone was not the first of its kind in the area.

Member of Parliament for Wa West, Peter Toobu, disclosed that even before the infamous Friday incident which was condemned by the top hierarchy of the military, some soldiers in the area had gone to beat up the owner of a washing bay who asked them to pay for services he rendered.

In an interview with 3FM, Mr. Toobu gave an account of how the incident happened.

“In my constituency Wechiau, a young man who is unemployed for many years decided to establish a washing bay. Soldiers go there to wash their vehicle, in Wechiau Wa West, and one day the young man says ‘gentlemen when you wash please try and pay. I am paying light bill, all the young men who are here working I pay them’ and the soldiers said ‘you want us to pay for washing our car here?’ He said ‘yes, I will collect GHS15 but because we’ve been relating for a long time, you are here for our security please always pay GHS10’.

“They go out, dressed up and came back, get the young man into their vehicle, send him into their place and beat him to pulp. And this is the army that you think we can call them the Ghana Armed Forces. No. this is not the behaviour, this is not the character, and this is not the level that we expect to see from what we call Ghana Armed Forces,” he recounted.

He said a complaint was lodged with the police and that he is waiting to see the next line of action from the police

“The case is reported to the police but I am monitoring it keenly because I know when matters of this nature happen the police have a way to go about it and get the military high command informed about what their men have done,” he noted.

The development, according to the ex-police officer, would have been swept under the carpet but for his intervention.