Albert Kan-Dapaah
The Commission of Enquiry, which is investigating the violence that rocked the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency by-election recently, has been told on its first day of sitting that guns were fired from the compound of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate.
Making his submissions before the Commission yesterday live on national television, the National Security Minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah, told the commission that although there were gunshots from the compound the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team did not find the weapons.
“They obviously took them away,” the minister told the Justice Emile Short Commission, adding “their (SWAT) suspicion was that the people must have run away with whatever weapons they were holding.”
“The SWAT Team deployed to La Bawaleshie on January 31, 2019 did not shoot at anyone,” he told the Commission.
According to him, though the leader of the team reported that one person sustained “gunshot wounds,” he insisted they were not responsible for the shots.
“My information is that when they left that polling station, they all rushed into this house that was under surveillance. When the SWAT team later attempted to go closer to the house, the inmates started pelting them with stones,”
Answering questions at the Commission, Mr. Kan-Dapaah said, “They [SWAT team] do not even remember seeing any such person on the ground and that the person who was shot came from that compound.”
Just hours into the by-election at the La Bawalashie Presby polling station, gunshots were fired at the location.
The media were inundated with news of several dozen security detail in black masks and shirts labelled NSC (National Security Council) storming the polling station to fire shots for about 20 minutes on the election day.
The police administration has so far taken statements from 16 victims of the shooting incident.
“My information is that when they left that polling station, they all rushed into this house that was under surveillance. When the SWAT Team later attempted to go closer to the house, the inmates started pelting them with stones,” Kan Dapaah told the Commission.
He added that “later, they [SWAT team] also said they heard gunshots coming from within the compound of the house. Our boys then gave warning shots which they tell me did not hit anybody.
“But obviously, I will await the end of the investigations to find out exactly what happened and how many shots they fired and whether they hit anybody,” he said.
Regarding the slapping of the NDC MP, Sam George by a national security operative, the minister agreed that indeed the incident happened but the perpetrator was only questioned.
“It will be interesting to find out why he has not been arrested,” the minister, who was the second person to appear before the Commission, said.
A video which went virile showed a bulky-looking man jumping out of a vehicle to approach Sam George menacingly.
He reported that the operative had warned the NDC MP not to cause fear and panic by spreading false information.
At the time, the MP, who had been pacing up and down near the vehicle on a park at Bawaleshie in Accra, repeatedly announced that a man had been killed in his own house but the claim turned out to be untrue.
The MP, the Minister went on, was slapped because repeated warnings to him not to spread false information were ignored.
Interior Minister’s Turn
The Interior Minister, Ambrose Dery, when he took his turn, said the police did not play any role in the episode.
According to him, the Ghana Police Service, which is under his ministry, had no hand in the operations of the ‘masked men’ who have been widely described in the media as vigilantes aligned to the governing NPP.
He also disclosed that the vehicles used in transporting the supposed masked and fully armed men to the La Bawaleshie polling centre where most of the violence occurred did not belong to the Ghana Police Service despite having the inscription, “Police SWAT” on it and being driven by a uniformed police officer.
Mr. Dery also said he had no idea of the deployment of the masked men to the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency and only saw them on national television.
He said that the official report sent to him by the IGP revealed that the masked men in khaki uniforms were not personnel of the Ghana Police Service.
“As reported to me by the IGP, who was in charge of the operations, I will say that there were police deployed and there were also officers of the Ghana Immigration Service, also deployed in the 137 polling stations. That is what I know…”
“…I first saw on TV some persons dressed in khaki and some of them wearing masks and armed… and when I got the video, I forwarded it to the police and he said these are not part of my men. I later got information that an officer of the National Security had said that they were national security operatives,” he stated.
By Jamila Okerchiri Akweley