Ranking on Defense and Interior Committee and Member of Parliament for Builsa North James Agalga has asked government to wholly implement the report on Ejura disturbances, presented by the committee on Monday September 27, 2021.
Mr. Agalga in reacting to the Justice George Kingsley Koomson’s led three member committee, asked government to use the opportunity to redeem itself and prove that it has what it takes to punish wrong doing among its appointees and people in the security services.
He said government should not only fully implement the report but also do so promptly as delay will be taken as an attempt to shelve the report as done in the case of the Emil Short led Ayawaso West Wuguon commission of inquiry report.
“It is my expectation that government fully and promptly implement the recommendations and not as done in the case of Ayawaso West Wuguon”.
He added that “We expected nothing short of implementing the recommendations that is all we are asking”, he explained shortly after the report was presented.
Mr. Agalga’s demands on government to implement the Ejura report, made it the third leading person in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to have made this call.
It would be recalled that while in the Ashanti Region as part of his “Thank You tour”, former President John Dramani Mahama had also made similar call when he visited the victims of the Ejuara incident, even before the report was released.
The ex-President indicated that the NDC would be watching keenly to see what government will do with the findings of the Ejura Killings Committee saying in the past, same government has rejected most of the conclusions by the Ayawaso West Wugoun by-election violence investigative committee.
He noted “There’s a saying that impunity breeds more impunity, impunity breeds criminality and violence. The government rejected a lot of the recommendations of the Ayawaso West Wuogon Committee”.
“We are monitoring to see what the government will do with the report on the Ejura killings. From the videos I’ve seen the operation was led by the Military with the police standing behind, they got down from their vehicle and started firing and hitting some of the demonstrators in the process. May the Almighty God keep their souls”.
The former president said those who would be found culpable should be punished to serve as deterrent.
Another leading member of the NDC,fFormer Member of Parliament for Buem constituency, Daniel Kwesi Ashiamah also called on the President Akufo-Addo not to shelve the Ejura Committee’s report as done in the case of Ayawaso West Wuogon’s report.
The former MP implored President Nana Addo even ahead of the release of the report, to implement the recommendations to the latter if the committee presents its work to him, adding it would be worrying if the President repeats what he and his government did to the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election shooting incident’s finding.
The former legislator said Ghanaians felt disappointed after the government issued a white paper ignoring the recommendations by the Justice Emile Short Commission, but hoping government will redeem themselves when the report of the three member ministerial committee of inquiry into the occurrences at Ejura in the Ashanti Region is presented.
