Member of Parliament for Wa West and Member of the Defense and Interior Committee Peter Lanchene Toobu has added his voice in condemning the brutality visited on some civilians by the Military in Wa on Thursday July 1, 2021.
Commenting on a viral video that showed some military persons brutalizing civilians, the Wa West MP said the security of the country is now degenerating and there must be an urgent action from everyone, especially the executive to formulate action plans in dealing with the situation.
“Security of the state is degenerating. The direction we are heading is a wrong one and we should tell the driver. Military is not trained to behave towards civilian that way, the moment civilians begin to think military is not there to protect them, then that will bring problem, the moment the civilians begin to think that the Police is now ineffective, unprofessional and incompetent, then there is a problem”
A viral video on social media on Thursday, July 1, 2021, showed armed military officers brutalizing some residents of Wa, the Upper West Regional capital, allegedly over a missing mobile phone. This came at the back of a week after soldiers opened fire on protesters at Ejura in the Ashanti Region, leading to the death of two people and injuries to four others. This led to the government setting up a 3-member committee to investigate and recommend punitive actions if appropriate.
The High Command of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has given the assurance that soldiers who were seen in the video gone viral molesting some residents of Wa in the Upper West region will be punished.
The statement from GAF further explained that “Internal disciplinary measures have been instituted to deal with all those who will be found culpable in this unprofessional conduct by the soldiers. In view of the seriousness of the matter, the Chief of the Army Staff is leading a high powered military delegation to Wa to meet the traditional and opinion leaders to find an amicable way of resolving this unfortunate incident. The delegation will also explore means to assuage the anger of the people and promote good neighborliness”.
But the Wa West MP said it is time voices of conscience in the country begin to speak against the unprofessional conduct of some soldiers in recent days. Recalling the incident involving the military at Ejura and Wa, Mr. Toobu told Noel Nutsugah host of Statecraft on Zylofon 102.1 FM that “The peace of this country is supreme, if you think that you will be quiet, and let this mayhem continue, I am disappointed, all of us should rise and speak up and go against the ills of the society, point it out and say this is wrong”.
“This is not the way to govern a country, 28 years into 4th Republic, I expect things to get better and polished, we should becoming more professional, impactful on the citizenry, the citizen should be proud of their uniform men and women. Where we are getting to, it is degenerating and is like we are rewinding the clock, behaving as if we just started”. Mr. Toobu lamented.
He reminded the Ghana Armed Forces to be aware that, they are responsible to protect the territorial integrity of the country, adding that the sovereign power and will of the people cannot be taken away by a bullet and no peace ever prevail in the world through a bullet, so “GAF should watch out and deal with the civilians as they are”.
He also called on GAF to rid the service to apply its rules and regulations to rid the service of the bad nuts who are bringing the image of the military into disrepute.
“People have found themselves in the uniform and they are not supposed to be there, that is why the procedures, rules and regulations are there. Weed them out before they destroy the good name that the Ghana Armed Forces earned over the years globally”
“To my people, don’t let this infuriate you to begin to think negative. Let us all understand that those are just some bad nuts. Let us see what the military command will say and do, we need to be satisfy that they are weeding out these chaffs that have found themselves in military uniform, but for now keyire, keyire, keyire, he advised the people of Wa“.
Audio on demand
