Ejura Violence Committee Recommends Body Cams For Riot Control Police

The three-member committee set up in July by President Akufo-Addo to investigate the Police and Military brutalities in Ejura in the Ashanti region has recommended the equipping of Police and Military crowd control personnel with body cameras.

The recommendation was in a report from the Committee’s work which was published by the government on Monday.

“All crowd/riot/crisis control units be made to wear bodycams, and all vehicles and mobile gadgets employed must also have cameras,” the report recommended.

President, Akufo-Addo, in July 2021, directed the Interior Ministry to undertake a public inquiry into the killing of two unarmed protestors by Police and military personnel who had also injured four others.

The officers had reportedly opened fire into the demonstrators who had been protesting the dastardly killing of a social media activist, Ibrahim Muhammed, popularly known as Kaaka Macho.

Kaaka was murdered on Monday, June 28, 2021, with his murder widely speculated to have been state-sponsored because of his activity on social media as a loyalist of the #FixTheCountry Movement.

However, the Police claimed that his murder was purely a private matter and had controversially arrested three suspects, including an elder brother of the deceased and putting them before court.

The Interior Ministry subsequently constituted a three-member committee chaired by Justice George Kingsley Koomson to probe the issue and make recommendations.

Also among the recommendations was the call for compensation for the families of the two deceased persons, Abdul Nasir Yusuf and Murtala Suraj Mohammed and the injured persons, Louis Ayikpa, Awal Misbau, and Nasif Nuhu.

Other recommendations include the immediate transfer of the District Police commander of Ejura, DSP Philip Kojo Hammond for his incompetence in handling the situation and also for the fact that his relationship with the community seems to have been damaged beyond repair.

The committee also recommended the removal of the Ejura-Sekyedumase Municipal Chief Executive, Mohammed Salisu Bamba, “since his continuous presence as MCE would exacerbate the already tense security situation in Ejura” and, that, “the Military Establishment review the actions of the section on the ground, led by Lieutenant Martin Opoku Adusei, for the inappropriate use of force, and apply appropriate sanctions.”

The report recommended that the National Commission for Civic Education should intensify its Public education in relation to the rights, obligations, and civic responsibilities of the people of Ejura and that Sports and Recreational Facilities should be established in Ejura under the Zongo Development Fund, to re-channel the energies of the youth.