Dodowa: Gunshots fired at hospital as Land-guards clash

Seven people have been arrested by the Police in Dodowa in the Shai Osudoku District of the Greater Accra in connection with disturbances at the Shai-Osudoku District hospital on Wednesday.

There was a bloody clash at the hospital premises after a gunfight ensued between land guards and landowners leading to several injuries on Wednesday.

Some victims of a brawl over land issues had sustained machete wounds and had been taken to the hospital for treatment but the other faction besieged the hospital with the aim to continue the fight.

Several other people believed to be residents of Dodowa and its environs who played a major role in the disturbances have been placed on the police wanted list to assist with investigations into the incident.

The group at large, according to the police had earlier attacked an estate developer, Bright Oppong-Baah who had sought clearance from the police to begin construction work on a land he claimed to have bought in the area.

According to the Dodowa Divisional Police Commander, Superintendent Patrick Kwapong, soon after Oppong-Baah's visit, the assailants also visited the police to claim ownership of the same land.

The District Police Commander, DSP Harrison Katso, however, asked the group to produce documents covering the land, since Oppong-Baah had earlier presented titles and other necessary documentation covering the land.

The group, the police officer said, however, dispersed and returned hours later with some wielding a shotgun, a pistol with bruises on them” claiming to have been attacked by Oppong-Baah and his group.

They were thus issued with a police form to go to the hospital, after which the investigator in the case followed up to the district hospital only to realise that two members of Oppong’s group had earlier been rushed to the same hospital because they had sustained severe head injuries from a machete attack.

The wounds, according to the police were allegedly inflicted on them by the feuding group that had earlier reported to have been attacked”, Supt Kwapong told Graphic Online.

The two injured persons whom, he claimed were in critical condition had been referred to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital for further treatment, while the police has mounted a search for the leaders of the group, whom he said also shot indiscriminately into the air at the hospital before they fled.

Meanwhile, in a radio interview monitored by the Graphic Online News Desk on Accra on based Citi FM Thursday morning, the Medical Superintendent of the Dodowa District Hospital, Dr. Ken Brightson said while authorities of the hospital were busily providing treatment to the wounded, the irate groups then stormed the facility to continue with their scuffle.

He said the scene became more chaotic when he insisted on giving medical care to some victims in a vehicle who were being taken to the police station to write a statement.

This was because the only police officer who was in the vehicle with the other victims had called for reinforcement, and the presence of the team led to a fight and subsequent gunshots.

‘I stopped a car moving some of the victims away to save the lives of the victims because I have a responsibility of keeping them alive before police report. A policewoman was accompanying them to the police station so they go and write their statement. So she had to call for reinforcement. As soon as the team arrived on our premises, it became chaotic. They started fighting. Some of the wounded victims also engaged in the fight.”

According to Dr. Brighton, patients on recovery have been left traumatized after the repeated gunshots left the hospital in chaos.

“In trying to separate the fight, there was a first gunshot and everybody at the hospital including the patients began running helter-skelter. The incident happened behind the recovery ward, and so patients who had undergone surgeries and were resting were left worried. When there was a second gunshot, there was complete confusion,” he said.