Ejura Committee ends sitting, pledges an open-minded report

The three-member committee probing the Ejura shooting incident has brought their sitting to an end.

Chairman of the committee, Justice George Kingsley Koomson, speaking to the media, said the committee was thorough in its work.

He said 22 witnesses were called to testify during the sitting.

Three of the witnesses testified in-camera for security reasons. While 117 videos, 555 pictures, one audio, and 3 documents were submitted to the committee by various witnesses.

“In all 22 witnesses appeared before us but three of them because of security reasons provided evidence in camera, also 117 videos, 555 pictures, and three documents were received by the committee as evidence and now we will sit, write our report together with recommendations and present it to the interior minister next week,” Justice Koomson added.

The Chair assured Ghanaians that the members would be open-minded in its report and recommendations to the Interior Minister, Ambrose Dery.

He debunked claims that the inquiry set out to ridicule journalists after some witnesses blamed the media for escalating and misreporting events.

Justice Koomson said, “we as a committee, we are a fact-finding committee and we have not come out to say anybody’s evidence is stupid or is irrelevant.”

“So, whoever will describe a piece of evidence as stupid or irrelevant, it is their personal opinion.”

On the testimony by Multimedia’s Erastus Asare Donkor, he said “Erastus gave a lot of evidence, video and apart from that he offered oral testimony. And I don’t think any of his evidence looks stupid.”

He said “one thing I have observed is that in the Ghanaian media, when people question some of your acts, it does not mean they want to embarrass you or ridicule you, no. If a media man comes, he testifies, he’s asked questions, he should be subjected to some form of questioning.”

“That doesn’t mean that you are being ridiculed. So, whoever thinks that the committee tried to ridicule any media personality, I would assure them we had no intention,” he added.

The Committee was set up to probe the killing of two people and the injuring of four others by soldiers during a protest against the killing of a social activist, Ibrahim Muhammed.