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Military brutalities at Ashaiman unfortunate – Defence Minister

 The Minister of Defence, Dom­inic Nitiwul, has described as “unfortu­nate” brutalities meted out to some residents of Ashaiman, in the Greater Accra Region, by personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF).

He, however, appealed to “the people of Ghana to be respectful of people in uniform and that will help all of us.”

The armed military men on Tuesday dawn stormed the densely populated Ashaiman neighbourhood, and subjected some people to brutality in what the Military High Com­mand said was a sanctioned op­eration to fish out persons, who allegedly killed Imoro Sheriff, a soldier, in the area.

Images of the brutalities, which have gone viral, have largely been condemned with a section of the public calling for the dismissal of officers who sanctioned the opera­tion.

In an interaction with the media in Parliament, yester­day, Mr Nitiwul said some of these excesses were bound to happen in a young democracy like Ghana.

“We are shaping up a coun­try and we are going to have some of these regrettable incidents happening,” he said.

The minister said investi­gations into the incident were ongoing and that explained why an official visit has not been made to the area by his outfit and the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and The Interior.

“We don’t want to compro­mise the investigations so that this tricky incident is brought under control,” Mr Nitiwul said.

The Chairman of the Defence and Interior Com­mittee, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, has called for calm in the area.

“We admit that there were excesses and sympathise with the people of Ashaiman and at the same time with the Ghana Armed Forces for our young men taking the law into their own hands to kill one of theirs.

“In a situation like this, all we can call for is peace. We as members must not inflame passion. Our mission is to make sure there is peace in this country.

“We condemn the unfor­tunate incident and call for cool heads to prevail,” Mr Agyapong, MP, Assin Central, said.

Meanwhile, the young soldier who was allegedly murdered, Imoro Sheriff, has been interred at the Military cemetery here in Accra in line with Islamic customs.

BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI

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