Ministerial committee investigates Ejura troubles “lost in the woods” – Kofi Bentil

Mr. Kofi Bentil, senior vice-president of IMANI Africa, believes that the ministerial committee responsible for investigating the disturbances in Ejura is wasting Ghanaians’ time.

Speaking on the Joy News file, he said the committee seemed like the wrong approach to unravel the deaths of two Ejura residents after soldiers opened fire on protesters.

“I haven’t found anyone who has the slightest confidence in the committee. Looks like they just put them together to waste our money and insult our intelligence, ”Bentil said.

He is also of the opinion that “it seems that they [the committee] are looking for a story to support a predefined story.

Although he believes the committee member; Judge George Kingsley Koomson as President; Security analyst Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso and Penplusbytes executive director Juliet Adiema Amoah may have good intentions, this is not reflected in the committee work observed so far.

“The committee is lost in the woods and I don’t mince my words about it. No matter how good their intentions are, we judge people by what they do.

As an example, Bentil said the committee spent too much time trying to establish a motive for the death of Ibrahim Muhammed, a social activist whose death sparked protests in Ejura.

He said that in Ghana, motive is not required to prove a murder charge.

“Why aren’t we interested in the things we can deal with right now. We are interested in things like the motive for the murder. We’re looking to see if the guy is a member of this or that.

“Any committee member looking for a motive is totally off and someone on this committee knows it and should tell them that the motive doesn’t matter. ”

One of the issues he said the committee could explore was the ballistics of the weapon that killed the protesters and whether the bullets were from military weapons.

Responding to suggestions that one of the killed protesters may have been buried with a bullet still in him, he said “if we are a serious country, this grave will be guarded and this body will be exhumed”.

—Press room