The Minority in Parliament has called for an independent commission of inquiry into the Ejura disturbance that has claimed three lives.
The caucus said the directive to the Minister of the Interior to investigate the fracas won’t yield the needed result because there is complicity of state security operatives.
Two persons, Mutala Mohammed and Abdul Nasisr Yusif, both 25 years, were allegedly shot and killed by armed soldiers in the course of a protest following the alleged beating to death, a social activist and a member of the #FixTheCountry movement, Ibrahim Mohamned, also known as ‘Kaaka’, on Monday.
In response to the deaths, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, through the Director of Communications at the Jubilee House, Eugene Arhin, directed the minister to initiate a ministerial commission to investigate the matter and make its report available by July 9, 2021.
But the Minority, speaking to journalists, yesterday, said a commission of inquiry within the remits of Article 278 of the 1992 Constitution would best serve the purpose of unearthing the cause.
The provision in clause one of Article 278 states that “…..the President shall, by constitutional instrument, appoint a commission of inquiry into any matter of public interest,” subject to Article five of the constitution.
Minority Leader, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, said “The president must appoint a sole commissioner or two or more persons to support the sole commissioner just like the Emil Short Commission in the case of the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election violence. “We want that type of commission of enquiry; not a ministerial commission.”
According to him, “there is complicity of state security agencies in the matter”.
Mr Iddrisu, who is also MP, Tamale South, said the President must accept “full responsibility for reducing this country into a policed state.
He said there is “no respect for fundamental human rights, and freedoms, no respect for the dignity of citizens, no respect for the liberties of Ghanaian citizens, and no respect for the constitutionally guaranteed right to life.”
Mr Iddrisu alleged that it was not the regular police or military that engaged in the shooting and killing at Ejura, but party vigilantes, who have been recruited into the system.
He appealed to the youth of Ejura and the country at large not to let the Ejura clash and killings generate into lawlessness, saying “As for the demand to fix the county, the evolution and consciousness of it continues. This maiming and killing will not stop it.”
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
