Asawase shooting: IGP must punish DCOP Duku – David Agbee

A security Analyst David Agbee has called on the Inspector General of Police David Asante Apeatu to punish the former Commander of the Ashanti Regional Police Command DCOP Mensah Duku for lying over the Asawase Shooting incident.

DCOP Duku on record stated shortly after the incident that the seven suspected robbers were gunned down in the process of trading bullets with the Police in the region.

He said, “We exchanged gunfire with the seven deceased at Manso Nkwanta when the police signaled to stop; they refused and started firing at the police and the police returned fire that led to their death.”

On Tuesday, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced a compensation package of GH¢1,750,000 to be paid to the families of the victims of last year’s Asawase shooting incident.

According to President Akufo-Addo, GH¢250,000 for each of the 7 families is to be paid to the dependents of the deceased, explaining that “even though money cannot replace the life of a human being, it is being offered as a way of accepting the responsibility of the State in this tragic affair.”

The compensation comes after a committee established to investigate the killings confirmed that the seven people were not robbers and did not exchange fire with the Police as earlier claimed by the former regional Police Commander DCOP Duku.

Speaking on Morning Starr Wednesday, Security Analyst David Agbee told host Francis Abban that DCOP Duku should have been suspended or punished by the IGP for blatantly lying to the public over the issue.

“I am happy the state has accepted the responsibility of what the police in the Ashanti region did…why will a senior police officer insist the young men had guns when that was not true at all? It is unheard of. There is a need to sanitize the system. The IGP should be able to query the Regional Police Commander for telling lies to all of us.”

Agbee also called on the government to publish the full report by the committee for the benefit of the public.

“The report after the investigations need to be published so we can peruse through it and make some notes and necessary corrections when need be.”

A youth leader in the Asawase Zongo community added that morally, “DCOP Duku should resign considering the utterances he made when the incident happened. What he said and what the report says are two different things.”