A couple of hefty slaps from some operatives of Operation Vanguard at Akrokerri in the Adansi North District of the Ashanti region was just what it took for a Methodist Pastor to abandon his Christian faith and run for refuge under the dreaded Ashanti deity, Antoa, MyNewsGh.com reports.
Rev. Shadrach Ato Mensah, one of the priests at the Obuasi Akaporiso Methodist Church was reportedly caught in the crossfire on Monday night when youth of the town clashed with soldiers who had arrested and handed over six persons to the police for engaging in illegal mining near the grave of the late P.V Obeng.
“Last night, the mother of one of my friends was beaten and she has been hospitalized; my father is a pastor at the Methodist church, they beat him up till he forgot that he was a priest so he threw away his bible and rained curses on them. If my father doesn’t make it to heaven, those soldier would be blamed”, one of the youth told Angel FM in an interview.
He said, “my father is called Shadrach Ato Mensah; he is a Methodist priest so he was returning from church when he was caught in the middle of the scatter; they have beaten him mercilessly forcing him to invoke dreaded curses on them”.
The youth pelted stones at the soldiers in demand for the release of the arrested illegal miners including an aspiring Assemblyman and an aspiring Unit Committee Chairman who had gone to the police station to seek bail for culprits.
A reinforcement of fifty two (52) armed military men who stormed the town around 10pm Monday night spared nobody they encountered and unleashed brutal beatings and slaps on even the innocent in retaliation.
As at the time of filing this story three persons had been hospitalized while four remained in police custody.
“It was brutal and very serious; they beat up women like they were fighting with men; we had to sleep in the bush till daybreak and they have vowed to return; we are telling the government to buy guns for us if they can’t protect us, we can do it ourselves”, one of the young men who spoke with Kumasi-based Angel FM said in an interview monitored by MyNewsGh.com.
The soldiers also reported “beat up mobile money vendors and looted their cash; they also beat up a kebab seller and chewed all his meat after he fled”, another person said.
The attack affected the voter turnout to the District Assembly Elections in the town as most of them had fled at the time of polls, while others, out of anger had vowed never to vote again in the area.
