The opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC, is demanding the immediate dismissal of the Ejura District Police Commander, DSP Philip Kojo Hammond for his role in the disturbances that characterized the burial of Ibrahim Muhammed, popularly known as Kaaka.
According to the party, it is “his reckless conduct that provoked the Ejura disturbances.”
The 3-member committee that probed the incident recommended the transfer of the Ejura District Police Commander, DSP Philip Kojo Hammond for his “incompetence in handling the situation”.
The committee also added that his relationship with the community has been damaged beyond repair.
“The immediate transfer of the District Police commander of Ejura, DSP Philip Kojo Hammond for his incompetence in handling the situation and also for the fact that his relationship with the community seems to have been damaged beyond repair.”
However, addressing the media, the National Communications Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi, said the recommendation is not punitive enough.
According to him, a mere administrative transfer of DSP Philip Kojo Hammond is “insufficient and ridiculous”
He insisted the least the committee could have done was to recommended a demotion or a dismissal of the District Police Commander.
“Also, the Committee’s recommendation for the transfer of the Ejura District Police Commander, DSP Philip Kojo Hammond whose reckless conduct provoked the Ejura disturbances and triggered the shootings and killings of 29th June 2021 is insufficient and ridiculous, to say the least. In fact, it’s an insult to the sensibilities of the affected people and their families. Transferring a Police Officer to another station in the same capacity and rank can never constitute disciplinary action.”
“Friends from the media, how on earth can a mere administrative transfer which has been touted as routine exercises of the security agencies, be recommended as punishment for a senior Police Officer whose unprofessional and reckless conduct has caused the death of two Ghanaians and injuries to many? We in the NDC hold the view that the committee should have recommended a more punitive and deterrent sanction such as demotion or even dismissal of the Ejura District Police Commander.”
Meanwhile, the party also maintained that the Justice Koomson Committee that probed the Ejura disturbances did nothing but a “poor attempt at a cover-up.”
It said the three-member committee failed in its mandate and produced a report that is full of faults and recommendations that will amount to nothing.
“After an objective and painstaking examination of the report, we take the view that the committee’s report is a poor attempt at a cover-up. The report is full of faulty findings, flawed conclusions, and deficient recommendations, calculated to shield from accountability the murderers of a social activist, Ibrahim Muhammed aka “Maacho Kaaka” and the perpetrators of the subsequent state-sponsored killings in Ejura by the military.”
“Nothing could be further from the truth than this claim by the committee, and we in the NDC are appalled by the very laboured, albeit unsuccessful, an attempt by the committee to shield the perpetrators of that heinous crime from liability and punishment. That finding flies in the face of the facts and cannot be accepted by the Ghanaian people, who expected nothing short of the truth from any impartial inquiry worth its salt into the sad events that unfolded at Ejura”, Sammy Gyamfi added.