Raymond Appiah’s cracked phone

A 23-year-old Mason, Raymond Atta Appiah escaped death by hairs breath last Saturday at Madina in the Greater Accra Region when he was wrongfully accused of stealing a lady’s phone.

He said he was severely beaten by a mob for about five minutes until he was saved by a member of his church who told the irate youth that her son was not a thief.

Narrating his ordeal to The Spectator on Monday, he said at about 9am last Saturday, he had gone to the Madina market to buy a few items when he was approached by a lady to give her his phone to make a phone call because hers had been stolen a while ago.

Appiah said he told the lady that if she wanted to use his mobile phone, she should mention the numbers she wished to call so that he would make the call on her behalf.

This, he said, infuriated the lady who started shouting and accusing him of stealing her mobile phone.

He said a certain young man who was standing by came to hold him by his shirt and others subsequently joined to assault him both physically and verbally.

The mason said he tried to explain himself but no one was ready to listen to him as they continued beating him until blood started oozing from his mouth.

He said one of the irate people tried to take his mo­bile phone from him but he resisted it and in the process of trying to bite the hand of the person forcibly taking his phone, he rather bit his mobile phone.

The victim said when he had almost lost hope of sur­viving the attack, a friend of his whose mother is a trader a few metres away from the scene went to inform her about the development and she rushed to rescue him.

The woman who was a member of his church, Christ Apostolic Church, told them she was his mother and that was what calmed the mob.

He said some of his attack­ers subsequently asked him questions for proof of own­ership of his phone which he gave his number and stated the picture on the phone was his niece and also mentioned some numbers on the phone which saved him from further attacks.

Appiah said he, the lady who accused him of stealing her phone and another man who first held his shirt were led to the Madina Police Station by some concerned persons where the matter is being investigated.

He advised that people should use their own pictures as screen savers since that could save them a lot of trou­ble and also they should try and memorise some numbers on their phones so that in such cases it could authenti­cate their ownership

 By Dzifa Tetteh Tay