Ashaiman swoop: Your 'no apology' response senseless – NDC scribe to Deputy Defence Minister

The deputy secretary of the National Democratic Congress(NDC) in the Ashanti Region has described the response by the deputy Minister for Defence to the military brutality in the Ashaiman community as senseless.

According to him, the military in the first place had no business going to Ashaiman on such an operation if investigations have not been done to identify the hideout of those who orchestrated the crime of killing a young soldier.

“They didn’t ask them to go and do anything, they asked them to go and beat them. Is the military in charge of investigations? So what did they go there to do?

"Who did you go there to search for if you are not in charge of investigations? It doesn’t make sense, there is no iota of sense, and wisdom in what the minister came to say. Not even one sense.”, he lashed out.

Mr Baah Acheamfour was reacting to Tuesday’s dawn raid of parts of Ashaiman by military personnel following the murder of one of their colleagues days ago by unknown assailants in the area.

According to reports, an unofficial curfew was placed on residents in the area following the raid, and some residents were brutalized and rounded up by the military to an unknown location.

After the incident, Deputy Defence Minister Hon Kofi Amankwa-Manu categorically described the incident as excessive and confirmed that the operation was indeed sanctioned by the hierarchy of the Ghana Armed Forces.

He also noted that the military personnel sent to Ashaiman were carried away on their duties.

Bust responding to this, Mr Baah Acheamfour clearly stated that it was wrong for the minister to describe the brutality meted out to some innocent civilians as excesses and went ahead to ask if the minister is alright.

“You cannot describe this as excesses when you are not done with investigation and you go ahead to drop soldiers from a flying helicopter to subject civilians to brutality.

"As a minister, you come to tell me that, those were excesses, what is wrong with you? Where have we gotten to?” Baah Achamfour quizzed.