The National Security Minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah, has said the reported cases of brutality meted out to some residents of Garu and Tempane could be “excesses” of security personnel deployed to the area for a “critical operation.”
He told Parliament in Accra yesterday that the joint military and national security team deployed to the area on October 28, 2023 was to retrieve guns which were used by some irate youth of the area to attack personnel of the national security few days earlier.
The soldiers were reported to have descended on Garu, Tempane and adjoining communities on October 28, 2023 after the youth allegedly attacked some national security operatives who were on duty in the Upper East regional town.
Briefing Parliament on what happened, Mr Kan-Dapaah said regrettable as the excesses were, the mission of the team in the community was solely to retrieve the guns used to attack his men.
He narrated that on October 24, five counter-terrorism intelligence officers deployed to Garu to undertake a “critical operation” were, upon arrival, “besieged by some irate youth who were armed with weapons including AK47 riffles.”
Despite initial attempts by the officers to introduce themselves, he stated that “the irate youth preceded to attack the officers by firing multiple gunshots at the black Toyota land cruiser in which the officers were seated.
“Following the attack on their vehicle, the officers drove to the Garu Police Station to seek refuge. The irate youth pursued the officers, circled the police station and fired multiple shots at same.”
According to him, the timely intervention by personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces enabled the safe evacuation of the National Security personnel from the Garu police station.
In view of that attack and the use of weapons, he said his ministry and the Armed Forces conducted a joint operation in Garu to seize weapons used by the irate youth to attack the national security personnel resulting in the excesses.
Mr Kan-Dapaah reassured of the security agencies’ commitment to protect the people and asked for circumspection because of the ethnic conflict in the area, government’s anti-terrorism campaign and not to demotivate personnel of the security agencies.
But MPs for the two areas, Lydia Lamisi, Tempane and Albert Akuka Alalzuuga, Garu, disputed the accounts of the MP.
According to Mr Alalzuuga, it was the youth who escorted the personnel to the police station after they raised concerns about their genuineness as operatives of the national security and could not have been those who attacked the personnel.
He said the district chief executive, district police commander and the regional minister and other security heads did not know that such a team was in the area to undertake such exercise which made their presence in the area suspicious to the residents with the counter-terror campaign in mind.
He said one person, per autopsy report, had died out of the brutalities having suffered skull and rib fractures and demanded a full probe into the matter.
Mrs Lamisi, on her part could not comprehend why her constituents in Bugri, 20 kilometres from Garu, should suffer brutality for a supposed crime committed by residents of Garu.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
