Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has issued a one-week ultimatum to the Defence and Interior Committee to probe the incidence of alleged police brutality at the Islamic Senior High School (SHS) in Kumasi.
According to him, the committee members must ensure they do due diligence in getting to the exact cause of the incident and return the findings to the House. He indicated that members will also have to visit the scene, “particularly to sympathise with the injured students and the Headmistress” to ascertain their conditions and report to the House.
“I will direct the committee on Defence and Interior to take this matter up and report next week. In other words, the committee members should visit the IGP to the regional police commander and the school in question, visit the injured persons and report by Tuesday with the findings and await the final investigations and if there is the need for us to take any further action, we will do that.”
Alban Bagbin
Mr Bagbin’s ultimatum was in reaction to the incident raised by the Member of Parliament for Asawase, Muntaka Mubarak on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday, June 14, 2022. Mr Muntaka in making the statement criticised the Police for what he described as unprofessional conduct in handling the situation.
“Mr. Speaker, according to fresh information from the school authorities, the Police broke through the school gate, entered the campus, and while the headmaster was telling them that the situation is under control, they didn’t take it and started firing teargas and live ammunition.”
Muntaka Mubarak
Police must be allowed to conclude investigations
The Asawase legislator stated that the Police chased some students into their dormitories and their classrooms and in the course of this, 38 students of the Islamic Senior High School got several degrees of injury and were rushed in ambulances across some hospitals in Kumasi.
In his response, Mr Bagbin expressed that the House should allow the Ghana Police Service to conclude its investigation on the matter.
“I think that our security authorities should not in such cases be releasing Police with live bullets, but if the Police are actually investigating the matter now, what we can do as a House is to immediately show concern by visiting the Police and let them know that we are awaiting their report and then after the report, we are entitled to take further action(s).”
Alban Bagbin
Meanwhile, the Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, has condemned the shooting incident that occurred at the Islamic Senior High School in Kumasi on Monday June 13, 2022.
Contained in a tweet, he indicated that the reaction of the Police in dealing with matter is becoming one too many.
“Just as we love and respect the Police to deal with such matters and particularly ensuring Public orderliness, the Police should up their professional antics & tactics in the handling of such ‘infantile’ challenges.”
Frank Annoh-Dompreh
It will be recalled that some students of the Islamic Senior High School in Abrepo, Kumasi, took to the streets on Monday, June 13, 2022, and blocked sections of the road to demonstrate against frequent motor traffic accidents in front of their school.
The Police in a statement stated that the students pelted the police with stones and the “police used pepper spray and fired warning shots in an attempt to disperse them”. Police clinical psychologists were subsequently deployed to visit the school to offer psychosocial support to the student body.
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