<<Print>>

Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide, Kweku Baako Jnr. has vehemently condemned the joint Military and Police confrontation with protesters at Ejura in the Ashanti Region resulting in the death of some residents.

A combined team of Military and Police personnel yesterday clashed with some residents on demonstration after a social activist named Ibrahim Mohammed 'Kaaka', a resident at Ejura, was attacked by unknown persons last Friday and subsequently died on Monday.

The protesters had thronged the streets in their numbers when the security forces arrived and sporadically fired gunshots killing two persons and four others sustaining serious gunshot injuries.

Addressing the incident in a discussion on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Kweku Baako questioned the logic in deploying the Military to the community.

He insisted the Military deployment should have been avioded stressing there's no 'sufficient basis' to support the action.

"I can't stand it and I don't think it is right," he emphasized, adding, " . . I don't believe that there was a sufficient basis to bring in the Military. I don't think so. I think it was an overkill and apart from that, they're not trained for crowd control, riot control . . . the rules of engagement are different. You know there didn't have the same skills. The expertise wasn't there; completely avoidable intervention, in my candid opinion . . . The whole tragedy was completely avoidable. Yes! It doesn't help the image of Ghana. You know, it's just not right and it ought to be condemned outright".

Mr. Baako also sought to find out what necessitated the call for the Military reinforcement.

He asked ". . the Military patrol team, were they going to confront armed robbers or people who are engaged in a spontanuous demonstration of course outside the framework of the Public Order Act?" and further asserted that with "spontaneity, sometimes, you will understand. So, it depends which target. What was their target operation? That the Police called them that there's some demonstration ongoing or some people are throwing stones against us and then you decide that the Military intervention is plausible and acceptable". 

He described the use of the Military to avert the demonstration as "an overkill. Yes, it is like killing an ant with a bulldozer . . . I can't reconcile myself with the intrusion of the Military".