A suit has been filed against the state and Ghana Police Service over the shooting and desertion of 10-year-old Dorothy Appiah.
On Friday November 18, the legal action was formally instituted through her father Edward Asare. He is demanding an amount of two million and twenty thousand cedis [GH¢2,020,000.00] in compensation for causing his daughter permanent disability.
The writ filed at the Human Right Court in Accra gives the Attorney General and the Inspector General of Police eight (8) days to respond.
Speaking to GHOne News, Human Rights lawyer Francis-Xavier Kojo Sosu who is representing Dorothy Appiah as legal aide in seeking justice said “the fact is that there is a wrong perpetuated by officers of the state and the state is vicariously liable for the thought and the negligence of all these police officers.”
Lawyer Sosu further explained that “having exhausted the 30-day notice that we needed to give the Attorney-General, we are representing the little girl in a human right action for some compensation for the girl so that we can ensure that she will have this holistic treatment that we’re all seeking for.”
“Once the case has been filed, we would expect that the Attorney General would have been served and we are expecting that they would respect the court and enter appearance and subsequently file their defense and then we can go to court and put our evidence before the court.”
“We are seeking a declaration that the state owes this girl a duty of care and that, that duty has been negligently breached and the girl has suffered substantial injury as a result of that breach…,” the legal practitioner stated.
Dorothy Appiah, as a results of the gunshot, developed a neurological problem leaving her partially paralyzed. However, barely after a week after GHOne News broadcasted Dorothy’s ordeal, a physiotherapist, Eunice Ohene Darko has offered free sessions to ease her neurological challenges.
Background
Ten-year-old Dorothy Appiah was shot in the head just 10 meters away from her school gate, the Humble Way Mission School at Sowutuom in Accra.
Dorothy was caught up in a shootout between the Police and armed robbers while leaving the school premises for home at around 3:30pm on June 7, 2016.
Miraculously, she survived after she was initially rushed to the Mary Lucy Hospital near Ofankor Barrier and subsequently transferred to the 37 Military Hospital where a bullet lodged in her head was removed.
Nearly six months after the incident, her parents say all efforts to get the Police to cater for the amount expended on her have yielded no results.
Her father, Edward Asare tells GHOne News that after issuing a payment of only GH¢600 to cover initial treatment, the Ghana Police Service has shirked the responsibility leaving the family with huge medical bills to cover.
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