The cruelty that took place on Tuesday in Ashaiman must be held accountable, according to the director of the faculty of academic affairs and research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC).
Prof Kwesi Aning stated on Newsfile on Saturday that it is not acceptable to regularly use violence to frighten people and instill fear.
The savagery we have witnessed, he said, “has heightened the vulnerabilities that we already face.”
Some shoulders must drop…
Who in the military high command sanctioned anything when someone claims the high command gave its approval? Who made this intervention’s plans at the top command? What were the ground rules for the fight? Was it because of the regulations that you went outside and used violence to try to gain the information? he questioned.
Prof. Kwesi Aning believes that the military and those in charge of the operation must respond to the concerns voiced, particularly in light of the fact that the Police were able to obtain the necessary information (and apprehend key suspects in the officer’s murder) without using excessive force.
As Commander-in-Chief, he should be pondering questions like, “What are the risk and threat assessments that were made before to the activities, in terms of how the operation was carried out, what can be the intended fallout for the wider security of Ghana?”
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“I can tell with great confidence that the unintended effect is highly negative because if you listen to the dialogue, people are irritated and upset,” Prof. Aning said.
This comes after the military attacked Ashaiman in the early hours of March 7 and brutalized some locals while looking for the killers of a dead officer, Sheriff Imoro.
Also, they removed a few residents to question them. As of Friday, the most of them have subsequently been released.
The local MP then denounced the military personnel’s actions, but the Ghana Armed Forces insisted that the operation was simply a swoop in a manhunt for some criminals and not an act of retaliation.
Akufo-Addo should discharge the military soldiers engaged in the swoop, advocated Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua, an associate professor at the University of Ghana’s Faculty of Law, who also featured on the program.
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Prof. Appiagyei-Atua made the point that even if the Military High Command had approved the operation, the President had the upper hand and could fire the military members who brutally treated the defenseless victims.
He added that although GAF maintains that the incident was an intelligence-led operation, the consequences of their actions show the opposite, making his aforementioned thesis believable.
