The Three member ministerial committee of inquiry into occurrences in Ejura, has asked government to provide body cameras for crowd control units of the Ghana Police Service.
The committee’s report which was presented to the Minister of Interior Ambrose Dery on Monday September 27, 2021, has also recommended that all vehicles and mobile gadgets employed by the Police Service must have cameras fitted.
According to the findings of the committee, the testimony of the Commander of the Section, thus Military personnel deployed to Ejura on 29th June, belie the testimony of the Brig. Gen. Joseph Aphour who was the General Commanding Officer (GOC) at Kumasi Central Command, adding that examination of some video evidence tendered by Journalist Erastus Asare Donkor showed that some of the irate youth were throwing stones and other implements at the military which led to the shootings at the crowd by the military.
Although the committee agreed that the firing of live ammunition “achieved the intended purpose of dispersing the rioters, it left in its trail unnecessary deaths, pain and suffering on the people of Ejura”, hence the committee’s held view that such situation “could have been prevented if the Police had prepared adequately in terms of personnel and logistics”.
Therefore, Justice George Kingsley Koomson’s committee said “It is recommended that, all crowd/riot/crises control units be made to wear bodycams and all vehicles and mobile gadgets employed must also have cameras”.
The committee has also recommended the immediate transfer of the District Police Commander at Ejura DSP Philip Kojo Hammond for what the committee said was his “incompetence in handling the situation and the fact that his relationship with the community seems to have damaged beyond repair”.
For instance, the committee found out that after reviewing video evidence tendered by some witnesses who testified before it showed that there was no need or justification for the dispatch of a Police Riot Vehicle to the cemetery on the morning of the 29th June, since the youth were already aggrieved.
“It is therefore our finding from the evidence before us that, the presence of the Riot Vehicle at the cemetery on the 29th June was an act of provocation which incensed an already angry and violent youth, thereby culminating in the attack on the Police Riot Vehicle”, the report noted.
Read the rest of the report in deatail below
