The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has confirmed Tuesday’s operation in Ashaiman in the Greater Accra region by some officers, saying the exercise was sanctioned by the Military High Command.
It said it was an intelligence-led operation conducted to fish out the killers of a military officer and not to avenge the killing.
Residents in Ashaiman complained of military brutalities on Tuesday, leaving many with various degrees of injury.
This followed the stabbing to death on Saturday, March 4, of a young soldier by name Imoro Sherrif, who had gone back to the area ostensibly to visit his parents.
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He is said to have been found in a pool of blood near the Amania Hotel in Ashaiman.
“GAF wishes to state categorically that the military operation, which was sanctioned by the Military High Command, was NOT to avenge the killing of the soldier but rather to fish out the perpetrators of the heinous crime,” a press release on Tuesday said.
Signed by Director General of Public Relations Brigadier-General Emmanuel Aggrey-Quashie, the press release noted that the operation at Ashaiman-Taifa and Tulaku led to the picking up of 184 suspects between the ages of 21 and 47.
They have since been handed over to the Military Police and sent to the police “for screening and for further action,” the release noted.
According to GAF, 29 slabs and 57 mini-slabs of substances suspected to be Indian hemp and amnesia were seized in the course of the operation.
It expressed regret that some innocent persons were caught up in the swoop and consequently suffered “some distress due to the location they found themselves at the time.”
“The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) also wishes to place on record that the swoop was not targeted at innocent civilians but was an intelligence-led operation conducted on suspected hideouts of criminals and crime-prone areas in the general area.”
Meanwhile, GAF has urged the public to provide any useful information that will lead to the weeding out of criminals and miscreants from communities and has asked that people “desist from shielding and conniving with such suspects in order to the curb criminal activities in the country”.
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By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3News.com
