The District Chief Executive (DCE) of Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa, Isaac Odoom, has been accused of assaulting one Abena Gyimah and her daughter.
The mother and daughter had gone to the DCE to collect GHS 1,100 being the worth of fish allegedly destroyed by the DCE when he run over the fish.
Aunty Abena and her daughter had readied the fish for the day’s sale only for it to be run over by the DCE hence their decision to go to him for the cost of the fish.
Explaining the circumstances of the happening on Adom FM’s morning show, Dwaso Nsem, Abena she was on her way to sell the sack of fish and had just alighted from a commercial van she boarded but because she was unable to carry alone, she placed the sack on the shoulders of the road so she could get help to carry it.
She said she returned to the fish a few minutes later only to find it scattered on the road. Upon enquiry, the fishmonger said she was told by eyewitnesses that her sack was ran over by the DCE.
It was at this point, she said, she and her daughter decided to go to him for a refund of the cost of the fish, which she said totalled GHS 1,100.
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Upon reaching the DCE’s home, the almost-teary woman said, instead of consoling them and paying for the damages caused, he rather rained insults on them before allegedly assaulting them.
She alleged further that the DCE’s security man also joined him in assaulting them.
A distraught Auntie Abena said she reported the incident to the DCE’s wife who promised to help her but hasn’t done so.
DCE Isaac Odoom Reacts
The DCE, in an interview with Adom News which was played on the same show, denied the allegations leveled against him.
He explained that at the time of running over the object, he did not know it contained fish, saying he suspected the content to be wood placed in the middle of the road.
He also denied assaulting the woman.
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How can a trader drop her goods on the stretch of the road? That road is a major road, I saw something on the road and I thought it was a piece wood because there was a carpenter on that stretch, he explained.
The DCE said when he later found out that the object he ran over wasn’t wood, he enquired about the owner but no one owned up so he drove off.
Listen to the DCE denying the claims in audio below
On why he sacked the woman and her daughter from the office, Mr Odoom said it was because they hurled insults at him,an action he saw to be disrespectful.
He added that several evacuation exercises had been conducted by the assembly to clear traders who sell on that particular stretch of road because their activities pose danger to road users.