Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament summons IGP

The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), James Oppong-Boanuh, has been summoned before the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament over some recent deaths that occurred during and after the December 7 elections.

Seth Acheampong, Chairman of the Committee said the IGP will be reporting to the Committee on the operations of the country’s security agencies during the elections.

“If you are doing an assessment of the entire deployment, we did well as a country and we must pat ourselves on the back. We should, however, condemn the excesses.

“But as I always say, as you admonish and talk about the extremes and that the security services personnel should restrain themselves at the least provocation, we must admonish ourselves as citizens to also ensure that we take our civic duties responsibly and don’t go overboard,” he told Joy News in an interview.

The Minority in Parliament requested that the IGP report to parliament to explain why 6 people were killed and 17 others injured as a result of electoral violence in various constituencies.

The IGP, prior to the elections, had assured the MPs that there would be professionalism to ensure that things would not go awry.

The Chairperson of the Defence and Interior Committee says the security services were only defending themselves and electoral officers against illegitimate riots being carried out by some citizens.

The Mpraeso MP noted, “I think the security men were in defence of the attacks that were being waged against them. The first and immediate reaction was to defend themselves but unfortunately, out of that defence, lives fell. But let us not go away from the fact that an action resulted in such a reaction.”

He stressed, “We must, as a nation, live up to our responsibility. We have all endorsed this dispensation of democracy and democracy is the Rule of Law, so if you don’t understand anything, do not take the laws into your hand. If you do, I will not falter the security service personnel, because if they had not stood up, the people would have overpowered them, which means they have overpowered the State.”