AN EYE witness to the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency by-election shooting incident has confessed to being an ex-militia.
Benjamin Tagoe appeared before the Justice Emile Short Commission on Monday, March 4, 2019 to testify about the shooting incident.
He was insistent that the people who fired guns on that day were members of the vigilante group, Invincible Forces which is linked to the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
His insistence that the shooters were Invincible Forces made the Commission to grill him severally.
The eye witness told the Commission that on January 31, 2019 which was the day of the election, he was on his way to vote when his friend whose name he gave as ‘Frank’ called him from a crowd from in front the residence of the NDC parliamentary candidate, Delali Kwasi Brempong.
He said he stopped to interact with Frank and in the process personnel of the Invincible Forces some of whom where in black T-shirt shirts, masks and khahi trousers arrived and following an altercation, one member of the Invincible Forces fired a warning shot.
After the warning shot, he said, his friend Frank ran away but he fondly called Captain stayed behind.
That prompted Prof. Henrietta Mensah Bonsu to ask him whether he was a militia to which he stated he was once a militia.
Asked how as a civilian and an electrician, he was referred to as ‘Captain,’ he said he had underwent military training in Tamale but was unable to pass out.
He said he was told by an individual in a crowd of about 50 to 60 persons that the individuals who came into the National Security vehicles were Invincible Forces.
He stated that members of the Invincible Forces attempted to enter the residence of the NDC parliamentary candidate’s house and were stopped by the crowd.
He noted that there were stones also thrown at the ‘Invincible Forces,’ noting that on that day there was a warning shot and 20 direct or aimed gunshots.
BY Melvin Tarlue