Armed masked men in Ayawaso deserve praise – Minister

General News of Saturday, February 2, 2019

Source: 3news.com

2019-02-02

State Minister for National Security, Bryan Acheampong, expressed surprise at the widespread condemnation of hooded, masked and heavily armed security operatives deployed near a polling station during the day. 39, by-election of Ayawaso West Wuogon.

Armed men wearing black pants and khaki whose action resulted in a shooting and chaotic scene at the Bawaleshie Presby polling station and the injury of at least six people made the headlines for the bad reasons.

Some of the men allegedly badaulted Prampram MP Sam George for questioning about the violent shooting that forced the National Democratic Congress to withdraw from the by-election won by the new patriotic party candidate.

Various civil society groups and organizations, including the United Nations Development Agency, UNDP, have unequivocally condemned acts of violence perpetrated by hooded men and warned Ghana against complacency in the past. With regard to its peaceful atmosphere.

It seems, however, that the widespread convictions did not go well with the minister who wants his men to deserve praise for serving the public interest.

Mr. Acheampong observed that a lot of misinformation was circulating around the issue and that [is] be pbaded on this misinformation "against the operation.

He justified the deployment of the men responsible for national security in the area during the voting hours, saying that they acted only on the basis of usable information on which they had been working for a month.

"I think that at least those who work for the protection of the public good deserve praise for tracking information. something we have been working on for a month, "he said.

Speaking on Joy FM on Saturday afternoon, Mr. Acheampong, also a member of Abetifi, declined to reveal the nature of the information and to determine whether Thursday's operation had borne fruit, claiming that the case "is still under investigation".

However, he stated that they had arrested 9 people at the scene of the shooting, noting that six of them who had tried to resist the arrest had been injured, but had qualified the wounds of minors.

The minister stated that they "had received information; information on some material movements here and there that we have tried, traced and then neutralized. This information, I may not be comfortable sharing on the air »

According to him, the information they received went beyond the by-election, claiming that it "was a mbadive move to relocate some of them." unwanted things for the public ".

"As we speak, our men are actively trying to untangle what we suspect, so it did not end. when that ends and we deem it appropriate to inform the public of this information, we will do so, "he said.

He added: "We have information, we go to the place of the alleged place, we manage the situation and I am not sure that those who went there for the public good are those who are blamed".

The excesses

The minister badured that if during the operation, his men behaved badly anyway, they would solve the problem. They would say, "If the agents sent there behave in a reprehensible way, we will take care of them."

Electoral Working Group

The minister also denied the allegations that the election task force ensured the safety of only one of the four candidates running for the elections.

"The information that we only had agents in one of the candidates' homes is false. We have an election task force made up of police, national security, immigration customs and we have been deployed to every home of the candidates. the parliamentary candidates ".

This, he explained, was a "standard protocol" at every election in the country, as they do so to protect every candidate, whether in the presidential or parliament.