The Director of the Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) has said that some heads in the military must be held responsible for the brutality that happened on Tuesday in Ashaiman.
Speaking on Newsfile on Saturday, Professor Kwesi Aning noted that the routine use of violence to intimidate and sow fear cannot be legitimised.
He explained that “the brutality that we have seen has heightened the vulnerabilities that we already face.”
“Some heads must roll…when somebody says the military high command sanctioned it, who in the high command sanctioned it? Who in the high command, planned this intervention? What were the rules of engagement? Were the rules in such a manner that you go out there and use violence to seek to get the information?” he quizzed.
Prof Aning believes the military and those at the helm of this operation must answer questions raised especially since the Police have been able to get access to the information needed (and arrested key suspects in the murder of the slain officer) without undue brutality.
“As Commander-In-Chief, he must be asking what are the risk and threat assessments that were made prior to the operations, in terms of how the operation was carried out what can be the intended fallout for the wider security of Ghana?”
“I can say very confident that the unintended fallout is very negative because if you listen to the discourse, people are frustrated and angry,” Prof Aning said.
This comes after the military in the early hours of March 7, stormed Ashaiman and brutalised some residents in a search for the murderers of a slain officer, Sheriff Imoro.
They also took some of the residents away for interrogation. Most of them have since been released as of Friday.
The MP for the area then condemned the act by the military men but the Ghana Armed Forces said the operation was merely a swoop in a man-hunt for some criminals and not for vengeance.
Meanwhile, supporting Prof Aning’s position, an Associate Professor at the School of Law, University of Ghana, Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua, who also appeared on the show, pushed for President Akufo-Addo to discharge military personnel involved in the swoop.
Prof Appiagyei-Atua pointed out that, although the operation was sanctioned by the Military High Command, the President has a superior hand and could axe out the military personnel that meted out the brutalities on the innocent victims.
He explained that his aforementioned point will be plausible because, although GAF claims that the occurrence was an intelligence-led operation, the aftermath of their actions proves the contrary.
Source Myjoyonline