Ejura Killings: Be candid when you appear before 3-member committee – Kamal Deen

A Deputy Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kamal Deen Abdullai, has asked persons who will be appearing before the three-member committee put together to investigate the disturbances in Ejura to be frank with the committee.

He said the committee will need the assistance of the people to be invited in order to do its work and find solutions to the problems.

A three-member ministerial committee has been set up to investigate the disturbances that occurred at Ejura.

The Committee is chaired by George Kingsley Koomson, a Court of Appeal judge.

The other members are Juliet Amoah, Executive Director Penplusbyte and Dr Vladimir Antwi Danso, Dean, Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFSC).

Marie Louis Simons from the office of the Attorney General is the secretary to the committee.

They have ten days to conclude their findings.

On Wednesday June 30, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo instructed the Minister for the Interior, Ambrose Dery, to conduct, forthwith, a Public Inquiry into the circumstances that led to the unfortunate occurrences of Tuesday, 29th June 2021.

The Interior Minister is to provide a detailed report from the Inquiry, with recommendations for appropriate action, within ten days, by 9th July 2021, to President Akufo-Addo.

“The President is deeply saddened by the deaths of Ibrahim Mohammed, alias ‘Kaaka’, Abdul Nasir Yussif and Murtala Mohammed.

“He extends sincere condolences to the families of the deceased, and wishes the injured a speedy recovery,” a statement issued by Director of Communications at the President Eugene Arhin said on Wednesday.

Speaking on this development on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday July 3, Kamal Deen said “This public inquiry, once is within the law, let us have confidence in it. When I saw the Committee put together, a Court of Appeal Judge George Koomson, aside his legal expertise he is also a security expert too. Dr Vladimir Antwi Danso , a great personality, very credible when it comes to security matters as well.

“The third person Juliet Amoah, another great state attorney. If you have such people put together what we expect is that they will work without fear or favour, inquire into the matter, come up with a report and now we all expect that whatever report that is brought out if the government is supposed to act then government must act

“Let us all be very candid when we appear before the committee because there is a plethora of stories going round.”

Kamal Deen further observed that several fake news characterized the happenings in Ejura.

His comments follow the gruesome murder of Macho Kakaa in Ejura over the weekend.

There was also a violent clash among the military officers and the youth of the area who were demonstrating in that town on Tuesday, June 29 following the murder.

This led to the death of two persons with four sustaining various degrees of injury.

He said “Ejura in perspectives, series of stories coming up. First there are those who say the state sent some thugs to go and kill Ibrahim Mohammed Kaaka, others came up to say no, he is a member of some fix the country campaign group, the reason why he was attacked and killed. All these stories came up .

“It is important to say that a single life in this country lost is a shortchange to us as a nation. We will never know what the person is going to contribute in terms of development for us.

“You take out the life and Ghana suffers but the truth is when the plethora of stories that came up, when you check those stories you realize that some truth is not therein. That is the danger.

“I sighted headlines ‘Fix the country campaigner killed,’ but now the story comes out to be that it is not the case .”

For his part, a security analyst, Mr Adib Sanni criticized the Military who were in Ejura to control the protesting crowd for using the last resort instead of the first.

He explained on the same show that the first resort in controlling an unarmed crowd is not the use of lethal ammunition as was used in Ejura.

Mr Sani told host Abena Tabi that “Even if you are pushed to use force, we different types of forces, you can start with the use of water cannons, tear gas pepper spray . The last resort is the use of lethal ammunition . Unfortunately, when you take a look at look at the video that surfaced online rather the last resort was the first resort . When you look at the videos especially the one that shows the arrival of the military which was in the lead and the Police behind them and water cannon by them you realize that they simply went to action firing.”

Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police Mr Oppong-Boanuh, has explained to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament the circumstances under which Police officers can shoot at protesting crowd.

He stated that the laws permit the men and women in uniform to use lethal force when their lives are in danger.

He said “Honourable Chair, you and I know that in very fluid situations, there are no hard and fast rules when the lives of the Police officers are threatened, that they should go through all these. So, depending on the nature of the situation you are dealing with, then you can go through all these.

He added “Yes, we do have a manual on the use of force. Normally, you will speak to the people through a megaphone or you shout if they can hear you and you spray water, you throw tear gas and then you use blank amour and eventually you use live amour,” he explained.

He further explained that even though protestors may not be carrying deadly weapons, the officers still need to protect themselves.

“Let me add that if you are dealing with unarmed demonstrators, then you will not go for live amour, but when you see somebody in the crowd holding a weapon which is capable of being used to kill or injure a Police officer, our laws permit us to use lethal force to eliminate that threat to the officers on duty. So, it depends on the situation you are dealing with,” he said.

“What people don’t know is ‘A’ may be armed, ‘B’ may not. So, being in the crowd doesn’t necessarily mean you know what is happening but technically, you are responsible for whatever the person is doing. So, we take steps to eliminate that threat to the officers,” he said.