Security Expert, Samuel Owusu has described answers given by the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simeon Osei-Mensah to the three-member ministerial committee set up to investigate the circumstances surrounding the shooting during the Ejura protest last Tuesday as unsatisfactory.
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According to him, the enquiry can also achieve results and bring closure to relatives of victims and the Ghanaian populace “if our leaders are candid with the kind of answers they give at such enquiries.”
He noted that responses from the Regional Minister yesterday to the committee “made it look like they are trying to cover up some information and if this goes on, then we will not see the relevance of setting up the committee,” he told Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show.
Samuel Owusu believes the Minister is trying to cover up incidents leading to the Ejura shootings because “he wants to protect some people and also protect his office”. “That will be the main reason for me to think he will refuse to be open and transparent on the real issues”, he added.
Security Expert, Paul Boateng also criticizing the Minister’s posture at the committee hearing added, “his responses were not very pleasant and he even indicted himself at a point. He said the video he presented was from intelligence he gathered and later said it was sent to him by someone else.”
He explained that intelligence is information got from analysis “and that means he did not know what he was saying”. “The committee should receive all the support it can for them to accomplish their task.
Anyone called before the committee must be honest because they are looking into the deaths and military involvement so we don’t suffer such a thing in the future and how to deal with such if it repeats itself.”
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Background
Following the mob attack and killing of social activist Anyas Ibrahim Mohammed, also known as Kaaka, some youth of Ejura protested to demand justice for his death but clashed with some security personnel at Ejura in the Ashanti Region.
This led to two lives lost and four injured.
In the quest to find the circumstances surrounding the shooting the President of the Republic directed the Interior Minister to set up a three-member committee to investigate the matter.
The committee began sitting on Tuesday, July 6, 2021.
The Ashanti Region Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah, became the first person to be probed by the three-member ministerial committee.
He admitted to having ordered the military to Ejura but indicated that he did not know the outcome would be as severe as witnessed.
According to him, his order followed a message he received informing him that the youth of Ejura had an intention to burn down some security installations including a police station and cause some destruction.
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He also presented a video evidence of the youth throwing stones at the police.
He has, however, refused to name the source of the video even after the committee has asked several times to present the source so as to check the authenticity of the video, insisting he does not want to compromise the safety of his source.
