The Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has criticised President Akufo-Addo severely for not addressing the Ashaiman brutalities in his state of the nation address on Wednesday, March 8, 2023.[ads2]
Some residents of Ashaiman in the Greater Accra region were attacked by personnel from the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) on Tuesday, March 7 following the killing of one young soldier in the area, Imoro Sherrif on Saturday, March 4, 2023.
Trooper Sheriff, according to a GAF statement, was stationed in Sunyani and was found dead in a pool of blood on Saturday, March 4 at Ashaiman in Accra after seeking for a permission to visit his parents in the area where he grew up.
Many were expecting President Akufo-Addo to address the issue during his national address on Wednesday.[ads3]
However, in a debate on President Akufo-Addo’s national address, Mr Ablakwa believes the President should have commiserated with the families of the deceased officer and the innocent people brutalized by the military.
“As Commander in Chief of the GAF, he should have first of all commiserated with the family and the GAF over the loss of the solider. But the President did not say a word. He didn’t think that he should condemn the brutality and assure that there will be a committee to probe the killing and the high-handedness meted out to the residents, and he is the Commander in Chief of the GAF?
Meanwhile, a GAF statement says the military operation was sanctioned by the Military High Command and was not to avenge the killing of the young soldier but rather to fish out perpetrators of the heinous crime.[ads4]
Following the operation, the military personnel picked up about 184 suspects aged between 21 and 47 years old and have since been handed to the military police and subsequently be sent to the Ghana Police Service for screening and for further action.
GAF says during the course of the swoop, the Military personnel seized 29 slabs and 57 mini slabs of suspected indian hemps and amnesia among other forms of the narcotics
GAF says the swoop was not targeted at innocent civilians but was an intelligence-led operation conducted on suspected hideouts of the criminals and crime-prone areas of the general area
“GAF, however acknowledges that regrettably some innocent persons might have been caught up in the operations and consequently suffered some distress due to the location they found themselves at the time”, part of the statement reads.[ads5]
