Three Ministers Appear Before the Ayawaso West Wuogon Inquiry

General News of Friday, February 15, 2019

Source: GNA

2019-02-15

Three state ministers testified Thursday at the first meeting of the Ayawaso West Wuogon Inquiry into the violence that occurred in the January 31st by-election in Parliament.

The ministers are Mr. Ambrose Dery, Minister of the Interior; Mr. Albert Kan-Dapaah, Minister of National Security and Mr. Bryan Acheampong, Minister of State for National Security.

The trio presented their respective reports of the security situation during the by-election to Parliament and its aftermath.

Ministers condemned political vigilance; affirming that political vigilance was criminal and that those who participated in it should be punished in accordance with the law.

The trio also reiterated the government's determination and commitment to eliminate political vigilance in the country.

The President, Nana Addo Akufo-Addo Dankwa, created this commission with the aim of conducting a large-scale investigation that would preserve the peace of the country.

It is chaired by Mr. Francis Emile Short, former Commissioner of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).

The other members of the Commission are Prof. Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, a prominent professor of criminal law and Patrick Kwarteng Acheampong, a former PGI; with Dr. Ernest Kofi Abotsi, Private Lawyer and former Dean of GIMPA Law School, as Secretary.

Mr. Dery, who was the first to appear before the Commission, stated that it was not the police administration, which had authorized the operation of January 31 at the applicant's residence. parliamentary Democratic National Congress during the partial election of Ayawaso West Wuogon.

He added that the information he had received from the Inspector General of Police (IGP) later indicated that the masked men belonged to a national security group.

He said he learned about the existence of the event, involving agents dressed in brown uniforms and black T-shirts, wearing the NSC inscription in relief, through the media, before the information meeting of the PGI.

The confrontation that followed between the agents and the men of the house resulted in shots.

Six people were hospitalized for varying degrees of injury, one of which was severe in the leg.

Since then, the incident has been widely condemned across the country, while calls for in-depth investigations were underway to engage the culprits.

Kan-Dapaah and Bryan Acheampong both testified before the Commission that they were out of town on the day of the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election.

Mr. Kan-Dapaah, who was the second to testify before the Commission, revealed that masked men deployed in the by-election of Ayawaso West Wuogon were responsible for the weapons team. and tactics (SWAT) of National Security.

He added that, based on information collected by the intelligence services, his team had deployed 60 men, which consisted of 25 police officers and 35 officers to check for the presence of weapons in a particular building. riding.

Responding to a question from Professor Mensa-Bonsu, Mr. Kan-Dapaah pointed out that the notion that political parties were owners of self-defense groups was false and that no party in the country possessed such self-defense groups. groups; adding that vigilante groups were more the property of members of political parties.

"There is not a group of security guards belonging to a political party, the Center for Democratic Development (CDD) has just published a study that establishes that these groups of vigils belong to individuals and pillars within political parties . "

"So, the NPP does not have a group of security guards as such, because you will find that there is not a group of party vigilantes."

He noted that political vigilance was a crime and that police and other members of the security forces had been instructed to deal with any act of vigilance.

Answering Mr. Short's question as to why the man who attacked Mr. Sam George, the Ningo-Prampram MP, had not been arrested or prosecuted, Mr. Kan-Dapaah stated that police were still investigating the case.

Mr. Eric Osei Mensah, the Commission's lawyer, asked Mr. Bryan Acheampong if the media reported having reported that he (Mr. Bryan Acheampong) had ordered the deployment of the team SWAT was true. Mr. Acheampong replied in the negative, saying time has never made such a claim.

He said that he had given three interviews to three media outlets and that in all his remarks he had used the words "we have deployed …."; referring to national security.

At this point, counsel for the Commission requested that the recording of the CitiFM interview by Mr. Bryan Acheampong be granted for the recordings.

After listening to the tape for eight minutes, he confirmed the comments of Mr. Bryan Acheampong.

The Commission adjourns until Friday, 15 February.