They blinded my eye with cement and petrol – Prisoner recounts near-death experience

Ibrahim who claimed he was an electrician said he was mistaken for a motorbike robber at Asante Mampong. He indicated that he hopped onto the pillion of a motorbike just outside the house of a client he had gone to work for.

Unknowingly, he said the rider of the bike had stolen it and was making away with it. From nowhere he said he heard a mob shouting, ‘thief, thief’ and the suspected robber jumped off the bike leaving him.

The former electrician indicated that they took him as an accomplice and beat him mercilessly. Luckily, he said the Chief of the area intervened when the mob attempted to set him ablaze. However, he indicated that they blinded him after mixing cement with sand and petrol and applied it on his eyes.

“My client even came out and told them I was an electrician who had come to work for him but they ignored him. They had wanted to kill me,” he told crimecheckghana.

Ibrahim said he was unconscious when he was handed over to the police. He said the police sent him to a hospital for medical attention but the doctors asked them to take him away as they could not attend to him because he would not survive.

The convict indicated that subsequently he was sent to a Court where he pleaded not guilty to a charge of robbery. The judge he said sentenced him to twelve years imprisonment.

“I was very weak when I was taken to court so I couldn’t speak much. I told the court I was innocent. When the judge asked me the whereabouts of the motor rider, I told him he was dead and then he sentenced me to twelve years,” he said.

The totally blind prisoner, who is yet to serve a year out of his sentence, said he could not hire a lawyer to defend his case.