Adam Bonaa, a security analyst, has commended the swift response and action of the military in sanctioning soldiers found culpable in the Wa brutality incident.
According to him, he is looking forward to a more stringent punishment on guilty soldiers, although there have been demotions.
“I must say that’s swift and I must congratulate the military. Early days yet to start celebrating, but I didn’t have any doubt in my mind. I know very well that those rogue officers who went to brutalize people were definitely going to be punished severely. So, I am not surprised information I have picked up from my sources within the military and the region is anything to go by.
“I’m definitely sure that as the defence minister promised in parliament, anyone who is found culpable will be punished. I am expecting that there will be some dismissal, we’ve already heard about demotion. But I think that the military is supposed to be one of the respected institutions all over the world”.
Ratings of Wa brutality committee
Mr Bonaa further revealed that, the military officer on duty should have done due diligence in foiling attempts by other soldiers to victimise residents in Wa over the stolen phone.
“The military has rigorous processes… so you don’t just send officers in uniform and ask them to go into town and go and look for your mobile phone. I am happy that there are stiffer punishments for those who were involved. We want to see more so that it sends shivers down the spine of all officers who are fond of doing these things to citizens”.
The security analyst also gave an impressive rating of the committee. In his view, things have practically returned to normalcy in the Upper West Region.
“I will give them eight out of ten because it looks like they are doing real work in the Upper West Region. As you can see, tension has calmed down. Those who were worried no punishment will be meted out to those rogue officers are revising their notes. So, I’m hoping that they maintain what they are doing and get everyone who is involved punished severely”.
Ejura incident committee
Touching on the Ejura committee, Martin Kpebu, a lawyer, explained that, comments made by DCOP David Agyeman on hearing pump action guns being used by the youth cannot be ascertained as the story is still “unravelling”.
As such, they cannot be conclusive as to whether the youth really shot any guns. He further established that, nothing is conclusive until the committee finishes its report on the Ejura incident.
“A member of the committee Madam Juliet Amoah, asked them if they had found any shell casings to show that the youth fired any guns and the DCOP said no.
“Ordinarily, we would have said we should keep quiet till they finished. But things in the nature of public interest matters, when the public comments, it helps to shape the rest of the enquiry”.
That notwithstanding, he insisted that, the security agencies received intelligence on the intended protest by the youth the night before. This, he revealed, gave them sufficient time to prepare in advance.
“Quite clearly, there was no proper plan in place to deal with this issue. I say so because the minister has been very clear in his mind; the DCOP also confirmed that they got the intelligence the night before.
“The DCOP says, they first dispatched those from the division in Mampong to go and help. Then later, before they brought in the military, it didn’t show and coordination…”.
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