A video on the violence of Ayawaso has been falsified – National Security

General News on Thursday, February 21, 2019

Source: ghananewsagency.org

2019-02-21

Colonel Michael Kwadwo Opoku, director of national security operations, on Wednesday challenged the credibility of the video scenes about the violence of Ayawaso West Wuogon.

During his testimony before the Ayawaso West Wuogon Inquiry, Col Opoku stated that the video, that some press houses produced at the Commission had been falsified.

After viewing the video during the Commission session at Christiansburg Castle, Osu, Accra, he made the statement.

Commission prosecutor Eric Osei-Mensah asked him if he had seen the video on the violence. Opoku Pbad replied, "I saw it, but not in this sequence. The precedents I've watched, we can watch it again. The immigration officer was moved when I think the Honorable Sam George was slapped, but in this situation, the reporter said a totally different thing.

"I watched the video and it does not follow the sequence of events like the first day. If anyone can get the video of the first day, you will see that this one is a video tampered with. "

He said the video was not a faithful reflection of what had happened on the ground, adding that the media should be cautious in their reporting.

Col Opoku promised to produce to the Commission the videotape he held on the violence of Ayawaso West Wuogon.

He told the Commission that, on the basis of intelligence information, that weapons were stored in a house in the riding, on the day of the by-election, national security had sent a team of 60 members of the security forces on a surveillance mission.

The purpose of building trust, he said, was to let people know that they were ready to protect them and defeat all violence. The team consisted of 25 police officers from the National Security Special Arms and Tactics (SWAT) team. .

The SWAT, he said, reported to Deputy Police Commissioner Samuel Kojo Azugu and 35 civilian officers.

He indicated that he had submitted an operational plan to the team, which was part of a convoy of 10 vehicles, indicating that National Security had also deployed its fieldwork group and that three sites under their supervision were installed. the house in question, the hotel EllKing and the Okponglo vocational training center.

He said that day, someone had told him that there had been gunfire around Bawaleshie, saying that he had to call the commander of the SWAT to find out what happened.

He added that the Azugu DSP had informed him that nine people had been arrested and that they were being taken to the East Legon Police Station.

In a few minutes, the Minister of National Security called him to find out what was happening, followed by another call from the Minister of State for National Security for the same purpose.

He said he informed the two ministers that there was a problem in La-Bawaleshie but that all the details were not yet known.

He added that after the outbreak of violence in La-Bawaleshie, DSP Azugu had made the right choice by stopping the mission in order to prevent the situation from escalating.

However, Col Opoku did not accept DSP Azugu's statement to the Commission on Monday that his men were wearing the mask to protect themselves from mosquitoes.

The director of operations said that his staff wore a mask to protect his identity because some of them were living in the constituency where they had been deployed to carry out the operation.

Mr. Francis Emile Short, Chairman of the Ayawaso West Wuogon Inquiry Committee, who removed Col Opoku from his post, asked him to appear again before the Committee on Monday, February 25, at 10:00 am for a counter- examination.

Mr. Delali Kwesi Brempong, candidate for Parliament for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the by-election, also appeared at the fifth session of the Commission.

He told the Commission that at the time of the outbreak of violence in his residence, he was absent to monitor certain polling stations.

He stated that it was his son who had called him by phone to inform him that men in brown trousers and black t-shirts were in front of his house and that there had been Gunshots.

Mr. Brempong said that when he arrived at the scene in front of his house, he saw blood on the ground and 15 bullet marks on trees, containers (metal) and vehicles.

He told the Commission that he had no weapons at his home; stating that his house was not a warehouse.

He noted, however, that his son sometimes stored caustic soda in their garage.

Mr. Short stated that, as part of their investigations, the Commission would visit Mr. Brempong to observe things on their own.