Defence and Interior committee to visit Ashaiman today over military raid

The Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament is scheduled to visit Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region today, Thursday, March 16, 2023.

This follows the death of a soldier in the area and the invasion of the community by military officers who brutalized residents last week Tuesday.

Kennedy Agyepong, Chairman of Parliament’s Defence and Interior Committee, stated that the committee, in collaboration with the Ministry of Defence and the Military High Command, would engage residents today to inform the committee of its next line of action on the matter.

“We have agreed that we will visit Ashaiman on Thursday [March 16] to dialogue with the people as well as the Military High Command and in the meantime, we pleaded with the Member of Parliament for Ashaiman to stay calm, and we sympathize with him and the family of the victim and also to those innocent people that were caught up.”

Military personnel stormed Ashaiman on Tuesday dawn March 7, 2023, with helicopters and armoured vehicles, to brutalise civilians following the killing of the military officer who was stabbed in the town on Saturday, March 4, 2023.

The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) in a statement justified the brutalities adding that the raid was not to avenge the death of the soldier but to fish out perpetrators of heinous crimes.

GAF announced that its high command sanctioned the swoop. The military during the swoop arrested 184 suspects, but they were all later released by the military.

The Police after a week of sustained intelligence-led operation arrested the key suspects involved in the murder of Imoro Sheriff.

The arrest was solely police intelligence work without the involvement of the military.

Independent probe

Ernest Henry Norgbey, Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ashaiman Constituency, has called for the establishment of an independent committee of inquiry to investigate the invasion.

According to him, the Committee must be able to identify all the officers and bring them to justice for dehumanizing innocent residents in the area.

Ernest Norgbey tells Citi News that the committee, once formed, will be able to solve all of the mysteries surrounding the soldiers’ invasion.

“This is the only way we can unravel the mystery surrounding the invasion. The Military High Command has admitted that it sanctioned the invasion and for what purpose it sanctioned the invasion is another matter that we have to delve into. When that is done, it won’t be peculiar to Ashaiman but recommendations that will be made will prevent military invasion in other communities”, he said.