Ashanti Regional Police Boss Admits Police Miscalculation In Ejura Shootings

Deputy Ashanti Regional Police Commander, DCOP David Agyemang Adjem, has admitted before the Committee probing the shooting of demonstrators at Ejura that the bloodletting is the fault of the Police.

According to him, the Constabulary had miscalculated standard crowd control procedures leading to the killing of two and injury of at least four others.

“I think the coordination was good, albeit the execution wasn’t perfect,” DCOP Adjem admitted on Wednesday when he appeared before the Committee.

On that same day, the Commanding Officer of the 4 Battalion, Lt Col Kwasi Ware Peprah, had also appeared but defended his boys, including the soldier who was seen in the video kneeling and pointing his gun at the crowd.

Now, the admission by the Police commander whips up a contradiction that is increasingly fueling suspicion of a cover-up by the security agencies. 

Two people were murdered while at least four were injured when a combined team of Police and military personnel opened fire on a group of unarmed demonstrators at Ejura in the Ashanti Region on Tuesday.

The demonstrators had been protesting the earlier murder of a social media activist, Ibrahim “Kaaka” Mohammed, who had been waylaid in his house and clubbed to death for reportedly “making the government unpopular”.

On why the Police did not deploy only their personnel but called in the Military, DCOP Adjem explained that they had intended for the soldiers to be like scarecrows to the demonstrators.

“In the past, we’ve had incidents, anytime they had seen the military, normally they would calm down, and some level of peace would have been restored, but this time I think we miscalculated, and we take responsibility for that,” DCOP Adjem said.

He added, “We didn’t anticipate that it would degenerate into shooting. Our objective was first to protect lives and property and to maintain law and order.”