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The Three Member Ministerial Committee chaired by the Appeals Court Judge, His Lordship Justice George Kingsley Koomson tasked to investigate the Ejura killing incidents and provide recommendations is requesting the Ashanti Regional Minister to provide the source of a circulating video he presented to the committee.

The committee began their inquiries today at the Prempeh Assembly Hall in Kumasi of which the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah was the first witness to appear before the committee.

In his presentations, Simon Osei Mensah admitted ordering the Commanding Officer for the 4th Battalion, Lt Col Kwasi Peprah to deploy members of Operation Calm Life to the riot scene for reinforcement.

He backed his decision with Security and Intelligence Agency’s Act ( Act 1030) section 5 that establishes Regional Security Council.

In the course of the accounts given, the Regional Minister provided a video that saw some of the agitated protestors chasing a police water cannon car to buttress his accounts.

This video was marked as “Exhibit A” by the committee and requested to the Regional Minister to provide his source for further questions by the committee, but the Regional Minister declined which according to him is not safe for the life of his source.

“His Lordship with all due respect I cannot endanger the life of my source, if I do that I might not receive any intelligence again and this will not help with my fight against insecurity in the region,” he said.

His lordship Justice George Kingsley Koomson continuously persuaded the first Witness to provide his sources to the video since the source might have more information on the grounds.

When asked about the reason behind the military deployment but not police, he said for some years now as the Ashanti Regional Minister, he has been using both the military and the police as and when it is necessary to deal with some insecurities, and according to him this strategy has been yielding good results, however, only the Ejura incident recorded injuries and deaths.

As to why he didn’t hold a meeting before the deployment, Simon Osei Mensah said he was in Accra for Regional Ministers Conference and he couldn’t have waited to have a meeting be it physical or virtual due to the critical situation at hand.

After the interrogation of Simon Osei-Mensah, the committee went on recess and returned with an eyewitness account by a multimedia Journalist, Erastus Asare Donkor who had gone to Ejura for reportage with his team.

Another eyewitness who has been invited by the committee is the multimedia reporter, Erastus Asare Donkor, who was at the scene during the incident.