Amina ‘Brother’ Chained

Michael Frimpong aka ‘Amina Brother’, the young man who claimed to be on the Yutong bus on which the alleged mass rape of passengers occurred, has been sent to the Nsawam maximum security prisons after a court remanded him. At the prisons, he fell ill on the night of January 7, 2011 and was rushed to the infirmary at the Nsawam prison but because he was transferred to the Nsawam General hospital, where he is said to have been chained to a bed. According to sources at the hospital, as soon as he was brought in, he was chained to the bed to prevent him from running away. “I can confirm that a young man was brought her in the company of prison officers at the weekend. They chained him and when I enquired from him he said he was the one who was arrested for saying that he was on the Amina bus, source told Daily Guide. Daily Guide investigations revealed that although Frimpong was whisked to an Accra Circuit court on January 7, 2011 without the knowledge of his counsels, he was granted a GH5000 bail with two sureties. The police then sent him straight to the Nsawam Prisons from the Police headquarters in Accra without any attempt to contact Frimpong’s counsel or nay of his family members to bail him. Andy Appiah-Kubi, counsel for Frimpong, told Daily Guide in a telephone interview yesterday that he was not aware of his client had been sent to court where he was charged with one count for deceit of public officer. Until he made a second appearance on December 22, last year, Frimpong was kept at the Teshie Police Station but was transferred to the Cantonments Police cells where he spent four days. He was brought to the Police headquarters in Accra for two days before being sent to court but immediately after the proceedings, he was whisked away to the Nsawam prisons. Frimpong was picked on November 17, 2010 after granting an interview to Great FM, an Accra-based private radio station where he gave descriptions about what he claimed happened on October 11, 2010 in what is now known as the ‘Amina Bus Rape’ saga. Frimpong made his first appearance before the court on November 23, 2010 where he was remanded into police custody. Just as the dust was settling on the Amina mass bus rape matter, which was resonated throughout the country and teased many minds as to its veracity, given the politicizing of the subject, Frimpong, a resident of Kumasi, granted an interview to Great FM, claiming he was on board the bus with registration GN 623-10, where the alleged incident took place. He gave a vivid description of the incident and appeared to have corroborated the story told by Amina Mohammed, the lady who first broke the news about the mass bus rape; but the police continue to maintain that the story is a hoax. Amina is currently on trial at the Accra circuit court.