The acting Ashanti Regional Police Commander, DCOP Kwasi Akomeah-Apraku, and two others have been detained by the Ghana Police Service for their handling of the tumultuous scenes that greeted Monday's demonstrations by students at the Islamic Senior High School in Kumasi.
ACP George Ankomah, the Regional Operations Officer, and ACP Alex Cudjoe Acquah, the Suame Divisional Police Commander, are the other policemen arrested.
According to a statement from the police, their detention is to allow for a comprehensive investigation into the event, which saw roughly 25 students and a number of police officers sent to the hospital for treatment or resuscitation.
In protest of regular pedestrian knockdowns by vehicles, the children had barricaded the roadway in front of their school in Abrepo, slowing traffic flow in the process.
Police used pepper spray and live bullets as warning shots to disperse the protesting students and clear the road for traffic, and while no one was wounded by the bullets, several suffocated and had to be evacuated to various hospitals.
A large number of parents rushed to the school in search of their children, while the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, subsequently led a team to Kumasi to meet with school officials and see the pupils who had been moved to the Suntreso Secondary School.
Medical care is available at the Government Hospital, Kwadaso Hospital, and the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital. The delegation also paid a visit to injured police personnel seeking treatment at Kumasi's Police Clinic.
When police attempted to stop the protests, the students allegedly showered them with stones.
The Police Service, on the other hand, claims that the "police management of the event was bad" and that it did not follow its regular operating procedure for crowd control.
According to the statement, "the Police Professional Standards Bureau (PPSB) has launched a full-scale investigation into the conduct of the officers who were responsible for the Police response," and that "Police clinical psychologists have been deployed to visit the school to offer psychosocial support to the students."