Police fire bullets and teargas to disperse protesting students
A-Plus fumes at Ghana police
Musician and activist Kwame Asare Obeng alias A-Plus has had some harsh words for the Ghana Police Service following their firing of live bullets and teargas to disperse students of the Kumasi Senior High School during a protest.
According to A-Plus, the police officers who responded to a student protest on Monday proved useless as they failed to apply a much more effective approach.
"Kwame Nkrumah gained independence for Ghana without firing a single shot. If you can't stop protesting teenagers without firing at them, you are mad," he wrote in a Facebook post.
Students of Kumasi Islamic on Monday, June 13, 2022, caused heavy traffic on the Abrepo road that runs in front of their campus to register their displeasure over frequent accidents in the area.
The aggrieved students said they and their teachers had become victims of constant pedestrian knockdowns and sought to bring attention to their plight through the protest.
However, a police contingent called in to calm the students decided to fire gunshots and teargas to manage the situation.
This resulted in a more chaotic situation in which some 30 students fell unconscious and had to be rushed to the hospital.
But according to A-Plus, the police operation lacked intelligence, proving recent accusations made by youth activism group #FixTheCountry.
"Which intelligent police officer, a parent for that matter, will be happy with such a stupid and senseless operation. Now you understand why fix the country wanted to embark on an armed demonstration? So many people were insulting Oliver - the same people he is fighting for," he fumed.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Police Service admitted to handling the protest on Monday poorly.
According to the police, "even though nobody was hit by a bullet, the handling of the incident was poor and fell short of our standard operating procedure on crowd control."
While announcing a full-scale investigation into Monday's incident, the police service said it had taken action against some top officers in the Ashanti Region over the incident.
"As a result, the Deputy Regional Police Commander, DCOP/Mr Kwasi Akomeah-Apraku, who was acting as the Regional Commander, has been removed from his position and has been interdicted. Two other officers, ACP/Mr George Ankomah, the Regional Operations Officer and ACP/Mr Alex Cudjoe Acquah, the Suame Divisional Police Commander, have also been interdicted to make way for a thorough investigation into the incident," the police said.
View his Timepath below:
Kwame Asare Obeng (A-Plus)