• Aside commiserating with bereaved families, they will attempt to douse the tension in the area by engaging with major stakeholders
• Security personnel deployed to contain a protest shot and killed unarmed persons in Ejura on Tuesday, June 29
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia together with the National Chief Imam Sheikh Osmanu Nuhu Sharabutu led a delegation comprising the National Security Minister Albert Kan-Dapaah among others to Ejura Sekyedumase on Friday.
Their mission? To commiserate with families of two young men who were gunned down by military personnel deployed to control a protest which had broken out in the area following the killing of a known social media activist and #FixTheCountry campaigner.
Video footage captured a soldier kneeling, taking aim and shooting into the protesting crowd.
Several people were injured while they fled the scene but two were at the receiving end of the live ammunition discharged by the military personnel.
Several Ghanaians have condemned what has largely been described as the unprofessional conduct of the security personnel.
Reacting to the incident, leadership of the security apparatus in a press confab noted in defence that the gunned down persons as well as many others posed a threat to the security personnel who were on the grounds.
In response, government has established a 3-member Committee of Inquiry tasked with probing the circumstances that led to the Ejura killings on Tuesday, June 29.
The 3-member committee consists of Justice George Kingsley Koomson, a justice of the Court of Appeal; Security Expert, Vladimir Antwi-Danso and Executive Director of Penplusbyte, Juliet A. Amoah.
The timeframe for the committee according to government is 10 days, after which they are to provide a comprehensive report with recommendations for appropriate action by July 09, 2021.
Meanwhile, Ashanti Regional Minister Simon Osei-Mensah has revealed he was the authority that deployed security officers to Ejura Sekyeredumase following protests by the aggrieved youth.
He told Accra-based Kasapa FM on their Morning Show, that his decision stemmed from an intelligence he had gathered about the youth in the area.
“There are several questions that: who really ordered the soldiers to go there? I ordered them to go there. I requested the military to offer us support, as head of the Regional Security Council.
“I got intelligence that they [youth] said after the burial of Kaaka, they will move and burn the police station and burn to death two persons who the police are keeping in custody in connection with the death of Kaaka. So, I realized that wouldn’t help and truly they were going to do that.”
File: Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia in the company of Chief Imam Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharabutu