Seven persons have appealed to the Inspector General of Police (lGP) to conduct thorough investigations into the circumstances under which the Legon Police arrested, detained them overnight and paraded them on TV3 as armed robbers. They have also asked TV3 to retract its story portraying them as armed robbers and render an unqualified apology to them to redeem their tarnished image. The petitioners are Alhaji Ismaela Ibrahim, the General Secretary of the National Sup¬porters Union (NSU); Messrs Agyei Abass, Sulemana Issah, Zakaria Musah, Yaw Dominic, Rashid Sumaila and Mohammed Nurudeen, all members of the union. Alhaji Ismaela Ibrahim, who was the spokesman for the peti¬tioners, said at a news conference in Accra on Wednesday that they had also directed their lawyers to take legal action against TV3 and the Legon District Police Com¬mander, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Michael Teku, for humiliating them in public. According to Alhaji Ibrahim, around 11 p.m. on Saturday, August 11, 2007, he and the six other victims were returning from Osu after attending an NSU meeting, when he had a call from Mr Samuel Okyere Sarpong, who was contesting the presidency of the University Students Associa¬tion of Ghana (USAG) at Legon, where the congress was going on, to contact him immediately. He said Mr Okyere Sarpong and other aspirants had been granted an injunction on the USAG election and that he told him on phone that he needed him urgently for a discussion in connection with a telephone call and a text message he had received from Mr Kwasi Ankama, the Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff and Minister for Presidential Affairs to the effect that the elec¬tion should go on despite the court order. Alhaji Ibrahim stated that when he and his friends went to the Legon campus, Mr Okyere Sarpong briefed him at length on how Mr Ankama had sent police personnel to the place to ensure that the election was conducted, warning that the security person¬nel must deal drastically with anybody, who would disrupt the polls. He said as the discussion was in progress, two of his colleagues, namely, Rashid Sumaila and Mohammed Nurudeen, were granted permission to go home. Alhajl Ibrahim stated that on their way out of campus, the Legon security and the police arrested them for loitering despite their explanation that they were only there to give moral support to Alhaji Ibrahim's cousin. He said the security personnel took the two men to where he (Alhaji Ibrahim), Mr Okyere Sar¬pong and some policemen were discussing the injunction. According to the spokesman, after the security personnel had asked them which of them was Alhaji Ibrahim and he confirmed his presence, he questioned the latter whether he knew Sumaila and Nurudeen. To this he replied in the positive and asked whether there was any problem. He said the security personnel replied that they had found them loitering, so they arrested them and would detain them at the Legon police station. Alhaji Ibrahim stated that he and the five friends followed up in his private vehicle to arrange for bail for the two men, but on reaching the police station, they were also pushed into cells together with two other col¬leagues, after they had accused them of fomenting trouble. He added that before their arrest and detention, the Presi¬dent of USAG, Ms. Sophia Kokor, had told a group of people that he had spoken to one Mr Ankama, who had assured her that the election would go on despite the court injunction and that be had sent one Maximus Adu Sarfo to assist the lady to go ahead to con¬duct the polls. Alhaji Ibrahim stated that between l0 and 11 a.m., the next day, the Legon police hurriedly arranged for TV3 crew to take shots of them which were telecast at 6.30 and 11 p.m., and they were paraded as armed robbers despite the intervention of their counsels that they were not armed robbers and that they had come to arrange for bail for their colleagues. Source: Daily Graphic