Lieutenant Colonel Kwasi Ware Peprah, the commanding officer of the 4th Infantry Battalion in the Ashanti Region, has said his men did not attend to the Ejura protest last week with a shoot-to-kill order.
Appearing before the three-member committee of inquiry into the shooting incident, Lieutenant Colonel Peprah said the soldiers fired to maim and also to disperse the protesters, but unfortunately their action led to two deaths.
The army chief said if the briefing given to the soldiers before they headed to the scene had been to shoot and kill, more than 100 people in Ejura would have died.
“The aim was not to kill,” Peprah told the committee.
“It was just unfortunate. If the aim was to kill, we would have gotten not less than 100 people dying.
“As a matter of fact, I even suspect the weapon that fired from the protesters might have hit one of them. You see the soldiers started firing into the air, if you are not a professional and there is another rifle firing, you wouldn’t know,” he added.
“All you hear is gunfire”
Lieutenant Colonel Peprah continued: “And that is how come some people are saying that they [the protesters] were not handling weapons.
“When an M16 rifle fires, I know. When a G3 rifle fires, I know, but the ordinary citizen and the media wouldn’t know. All you will hear is gunshots into the air.
“And since it started when the soldiers came, you will assume that it is only soldiers who are firing.”
Listen to Lieutenant Colonel Kwesi Ware Peprah at the hearing:
Warning shots
For his part, the general 0fficer in charge of the Central Command, Brigadier General Joseph Aphour, said the soldiers fired back after verbal warnings and shots to the protesters failed.
“When we got to the general area of the cemetery, and they [protesters] started issuing warning threats to the police and military team, we started giving verbal warnings, which we do in the military, but they didn’t listen”.
“So, we fired warning shots, and we realised that some shots were also fired from the crowd. At that stage, it was becoming too bad for civilians to be firing at the security personnel.
“I think the commander, at that stage, then had to use minimum force by ordering his personnel to begin firing at those who were firing from the crowd to maim them …
“After our fire, we didn’t have instant deaths. They were evacuated to the hospital, where we later heard two died. But, at the instant of our fire, the crowd withdrew and everything came under our control.”
Arrests
The civil unrest in Ejura erupted when Ibrahim Mohammed “Kaaka”, 45, was reportedly attacked by unknown people in the small hours of Sunday 27 June.
He died on Monday (28 June) at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, where he was receiving treatment.
Two suspects – Ibrahim Issaka and Fuseini Alhassan – were picked up on Monday evening in connection with his death, in response to police intelligence.
Security personnel then fired into an angry crowd of young protesters in the town after the funeral of “Kaaka” on 29 June, killing Abdul Nasiw and Muntala Mohammed.
Fred Dzakpata
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