Director of the Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Professor Kwesi Aning has slammed the Ghana Armed Forces for unleashing mayhem on residents of Ashaiman.
Military personnel stormed Ashaiman on Tuesday, March 7, and brutalised anyone they came across following the supposed murder of a military officer in the area.
Prof. Aning said the actions of the military are unfortunate and unconstitutional and a usurpation of the arresting responsibilities of the Ghana Police Service.
Speaking on Citi Prime News, the security analyst said “all crimes are punishable by law, but in punishing those crimes, we cannot take the law into our own hands.”
He maintained that though the killing of the military personnel is condemnable, under no circumstance should the military have moved to the area in an attempt to arrest the supposed killers.
“When a person is in uniform representing the state of Ghana and you attack that person, you’ve attacked the state of Ghana. The response mechanism for those who feel offended was to go to the police and report because it is the Ghana Police Service that is the frontline agency that should have undertaken the investigations, find the evidence, and use it to prosecute those arrested.”
“It is unfortunate that the friends of this young man who has unfortunately died, have taken the law into their hands and brought the reputation of Ghana into disrepute,” Prof Aning added.
A 22-year-old soldier with the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) band in Sunyani in the Bono Region was reportedly stabbed to death by unknown attackers on Saturday dawn.
The soldier, according to sources, was returning from his girlfriend’s house in Taifa and heading toward his residence at Zongo-Laka in Ashaiman when the unfortunate incident occurred.
