A Security Analyst, Dr. Adam Bonaa, has welcomed calls for a bipartisan probe committee to be constituted to investigate the recent killing of two Police officers, who were arrested in connection with a bullion van robbery.
Dr. Bonah asserted that due to the complex nature of the issue, it is crucial for a more robust approach to be used in a bid to unravel the truth. He indicated that a bipartisan probe, in this case, will help in restoring public confidence in the Police Service, hence, the need to welcome it.
“As far as I’m concerned, a bipartisan probe is something that I will welcome. In any case, once there’s loss of lives, usually the Police themselves would have to institute various forms of investigations. But I want to believe that this probably would be the first of its kind where we have a bipartisan probe involving such a matter. And so whatever finding they’re able to bring out and recommendations, will go a long way to help the Police Service itself”.
Dr. Adam Bonaa
His comments followed a private members’ motion filed by the Minority in parliament on Thursday, March 17, 2022, to probe the death of two Police officers who were killed in an operation to find perpetrators of a bullion van attack.
Following this, Dr Bonaa expressed the need for an independent ‘Police Complaint Authority or Commission’, to handle matters relating to the Police. Dr Bonaa conceded to the fact that despite recommendations being contained in the report of the Ayawaso West Wuogon Commission, they weren’t considered by the Presidency.
Prior to this, a Ranking Member on the Defense and Interior Committee of Parliament, James Agalga, suggested the need for the establishment of a bipartisan committee to investigate the alleged involvement of the Police officers. He explained that, on some occasions, the Police have failed to do a thorough job, in investigating its own internal matters.
Minority calls for bipartisan committee to probe bullion van cases
Mr Agalga noted that there have even been attempts to create an independent Police complaints commission, which has not yielded results. In lieu of this, he indicated that the bipartisan parliamentary committee will better help unravel the truth of the matter; one bereft of any influence whatsoever.
“Whenever there are allegations of killings with the Police implicated, it is out of place to allow the Police to investigate themselves. And we saw an example of how reports or investigative reports can be cooked when the Police are allowed to investigate themselves. A case in hand is the Asawase shooting incident, which resulted in the death of seven people”
James Agalga
During the aftermath of the killings in Asawase, Mr Agalga revealed that the Police purported to investigate the matter and the results of the investigation cleared the Police of any wrongdoing. However, he noted that following some public outcry, the authorities in the Ashanti Region paid heed to set up an independent probe, of which the results were “sharply in contrast” with what the Police themselves churned out in their investigative report.
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