Police release 23 soldiers held over Kasoa demolition

The twenty three soldiers who were yesterday detained over the violent demolition exercise which led to the death of one person in Kasoa have been released.

The Kasoa Millennium City Police Commander, ASP Christopher Darkeh, told Starr News’ Ibrahim Alhassan, “they came to the police station and we did some interrogation.”

According to him, the officers who were invited in for interrogation have been released based on some legal complications.

“We have procedures of approaching certain issues you understand me? According to them they were instructed to come here for an exercise. Who instructed them to? Their boss. So we deal with their boss,” he added.

Four persons were seriously injured when the officers fired gunshots to disperse a crowd who were protesting a demolition exercise by a private developer in the area.

A military statement confirming the incident said the presence of the soldiers were required in the area at the specific time.

“We wish to state that the soldiers were on operation ‘calm life duty’ which required their presence at the area. While patrolling the area, the team encountered a large crowd, protesting against the presence of an estate developer. In their attempt to calm the crowd, some crowd members threw stones at the patrol team.

"Some warning shots were fired in an attempt to disperse the crowd. The shots is alleged to have injured some members of the crowd,” the statement noted.

But ASP Darkeh said at the time they were released, none of the victims had died.

“In the report we had from the hospital, the person did not die as at that time though he was in a very critical moment. That’s why we could not detain them.”

Meanwhile, the deceased, Michael Darko, 32, passed on this afternoon while the three others have been treated and discharged.