Some youth have gone on rampage at Ejura in the Ejura/Sekyedumase District of the Ashanti Region following the murder of a certain Ibrahim Mohammed aka Macho Kaaka, 45, said to be a social media commentator.
The irate youth yesterday burnt car tyres and clashed with the military cum police on the streets of Ejura, leaving two more people (all adult males) dead and four others injured.
Cemetery Return
The protesters were reportedly returning from the cemetery after the burial of Macho Kaaka when they started pelting stones at the few police personnel around.
The unprovoked attacks was rapidly getting out of hand so it compelled the few policemen to flee the scene and called for reinforcement, and a joint police and military team arrived quickly.
The security forces, who were armed-to-the-teeth, then started to fire bullets to disperse the angry crowd, who were then destroying all ruling New Patriotic Party items in the Ejura township.
In the course of the shooting, six people, who are all adult males, were reportedly shot by the joint military and police personnel, and it reportedly resulted in the sudden deaths of two of them.
The four people that sustained gunshot wounds have been hospitalised at the Ejura Government Hospital and were reported to be responding to treatment.
Ejurahene’s Intervention
Prior to the shooting incident, the Ejurahene, Barimma Osei Hwedie II, had called for calm among the angry youth, stressing that he has confidence in the police to arrest Macho Kaaka’s killers.
The Ejurahene’s remarks seemed to have worked to perfection initially as the youth openly promised to remain calm just as their overlord had urged them to do. But things turned nasty later on.
Police Arrests
The Ashanti Regional Police Command issued a statement yesterday before the violence escalated, saying two persons have been arrested for their alleged role in the murder of Macho, who is a resident of Dagombaline in Ejura.
The suspected killers, identified by the police as Ibrahim Issaka aka Anyass and Fuseini Alhassan, are currently in custody as investigations continue.
Their arrests on the night of Monday, June 28, 2021 followed intelligence picked by the police.
Reports have it that Macho Kaaka was attacked on his motorbike as he was on his way home at about 1:30am on June, 27, 2021.
He was rushed to the Ejura Government Hospital and later referred to Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, where he died at midday June 28, 2021.
Brother’s Interview
The murder of Macho Kaaka was given a political twist when some people sought to politicise the subject by associating the deceased with the ‘FixTheCountry’ campaign.
This has since been debunked when it became clear that the deceased was not a member of the political group.
Some are even claiming that Macho Kaaka was a supporter of the government and was a member of the NPP in good standing.
Even before the police could delve into the case, those claiming to lead the ‘FixTheCountry’ protestors had claimed that until the gruesome murder of Macho Kaaka, he was one of their organisers.
Before he was declared dead, they started making social media posts to the effect that one of the ‘FixTheCountry’ leaders had been beaten by people belonging to the government.
However, on Citi FM’s ‘Eyewitnesses News’ with Umaru Sanda Amadu on Monday, the brother of the deceased emphasised that the victim was not a member of the supposed ‘FixTheCountry’ group.
The brother said that a letter was written to him by the police cautioning him about some alleged issues on social media but he said it was unrelated to the alleged threats the victim allegedly received for which the victim has a problem he had with the police.
Minister’s Point
Minister of the Interior, Ambrose Dery, said there is no way anybody can accuse the government of instigating the death of Macho Kaaka.
He said that he forwarded pictures of victim showing him soaked in blood, to Inspector General of Police James Oppong-Boanuh immediately he saw it on a social media platform.
“I saw pictures on some platforms about a person who has been beaten and what I did immediately was to forward the picture to the IGP and say: ‘What about this?’ And his response was: ‘We are trying to find out where it is’,” the minister told journalists yesterday during a dialogue organised by the Peace Council, adding “the first information that came out didn’t tell us where it was.”
He said, “I sent the information to him (IGP) because it’s all over the place.”
“He’s been beaten and he’s in a hospital, he’s unconscious, no indication of where the hospital is, no indication of where he was beaten, so, when you give such information, we have to now call the whole country and ask: ‘This picture, where is it and what happened?’” he noted.
From I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi