West Hills Mall Incident: Case Docket Forwarded To AG’s Office – Prosecutor

The case docket and pathologist report of the deceased in the West Hills Mall incident have been forwarded to the Attorney General’s Office for advice.

The prosecution informed the District Court in Sowutuom of the latest development when the case was called on Thursday, February 16.

Boafo Osei Kwame, Shop Manager of Max Buy Ghana Limited, dealers of electrical appliances within the West Hills Mall, is currently the only suspect before the court.

He has been remanded again in police custody and is to reappear on March 2.

Mr Boafo is on a provisional charge of murder.

Facts before the court

The facts presented in court indicate that the complainant in the case is Bernard Boanor Denkyi, an Operations Manager at West Hills Mall located at Weija.

While the accused is the Shop Manager of Max Buy Ghana Limited, also located within the West Hills Mall.

On January 30, 2023, the prosecution said Sergeant Daniel Abeiku whose designation is the Visibility Unit of the Ghana Police Service, was detailed to perform duties at the Mall. In the course of the patrols at the Mall, he saw Shadrack Arloo, 33, now deceased and Ibrahim Seshi, a witness in the case, wearing backpacks.

But then, the movements of the deceased and the witness at the Mall looked suspicious and the police called the deceased for checks to be conducted on him.

Per the facts, the deceased opened the backpack, removed something wrapped in a black polythene bag from the backpack and put it in his back pocket and started running outside.

The policeman then pursued the deceased and arrested him.

The deceased, however, struggled with the policeman when he was being cuffed and in the process, he removed the wrapped polythene bag from his back pocket and swallowed it.

“The accused person who also saw the incident rushed to the scene and removed his personal Taser and shocked the deceased.

“The deceased fell unconscious as a result and was rushed to the Somotech hospital within the Mall for treatment but was pronounced dead on arrival by the medical doctor on duty,” the prosecution narrated.

After the incident, the accused was arrested and the taser was retrieved from him.

During the interrogation, the accused stated that he brought the taser for self-defence.

The prosecution said, “the body of the deceased was carefully inspected but no physical marks of assault were found”.

The body was later removed and deposited at the Police Hospital for preservation and autopsy.

Despite the facts presented in court, counsel for the accused person stressed that a post-mortem report would make things clearer as the facts equally suggest that the deceased struggled with a police officer and swallowed a black polythene bag.

According to the defence team, the taser the accused allegedly used was not even working.