The Defense and Interior Committee of Parliament, the Ministry of Defense, and the Military High Command will visit Ashaiman next Thursday to dialogue with victims of the military brutalities
The team will also visit family of the slain soldier whose death led to the brutalities, to commiserate with them.
Chairman of the Committee, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong disclosed these after a closed-door meeting with the Defense Minister and the Military on Thursday, March 9 to discuss the matter.
He explained it is imperative to admit as human beings that excesses occurred during the military operation and to apologize and sympathize with the affected people of Ashaiman and also sympathize with the family of the young soldier and the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) for the death of the officer.
He also apologized to the GAF for the young men who took the law into their own hands and killed one of their officers.
He said, “All we can say is that we need peace and as members of the Committee, we cannot inflame passions by going there to make comments that might annoy a faction.”
“Our mission is to make sure we have peace in this country. The unfortunate incident that happened, we have all condemned it and the Minister has even apologized on behalf of the military that they admit there were excesses.”
Hon. Agyapong indicated a statement on the incident would not be made on the floor of Parliament now until the Committee has visited Ashaiman and interacted with the deceased’s family and the victims.
Minister for Defense Dominic Nitiwul described the brutalities as a regrettable incident and stressed some of these things happen during the shaping of a country.
He appealed to Ghanaians to be respectful to people in uniform because that will help the Ghanaian society.
He explained the reason why the Military high command and the Ministry have not visited Ashaiman immediately is to prevent ongoing investigations from being compromised.
The ministry, he said, will issue an official statement after the visit next Thursday to ensure the tricky situation is brought under control.
