Ejura Committee’s work shambolic – Murtala Mohammed

Member of Parliament for Tamale Central Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed has expressed misgivings about the recently released Ejura Committee Report into the killings that ensued after the murder of the social activist Macho Kaaka, saying the committee did a shambolic work based on their outcome.

He said the Ashanti Regional Minister Simon Osei-Mensah should have been sanctioned because he deployed the military to Ejura to engage the youth that resulted in the melee leading to the death of some nine individuals but the report failed to make such recommendation.

Mr Mohammed pointed out that after the military engagement with the youth of Ejura that ended in killing nine, the regional minister defended that reckless decision and its ensuing action.

He said initially the security forces lied to the people of Ghana that when the military went to Ejura to restore law and order the youth started pelting stones at them to induce their fatal response but the Ejura Report has established otherwise that when they went to Ejura, they started shooting at the protesting youth unprovoked.

Mr Mohammed charged it is obvious that the Ashanti Regional Minister participated in lying to the people of Ghana about what really happened for the military’s wanton shooting into the crowd in Ejura.

He, therefore, quizzed whether in his capacity as the chairman of the Regional Security Council (REGSEC), the Ashanti Regional Minister takes decisions all by himself or he consults experts in the field before security decisions are taken?

The Tamale Central lawmaker said the regional minister said he had a call and he asked them to go into Ejura, on what intelligence was that decision based on? Who gave him that intelligence to act the way that he did?

To Mr Mohammed, he is not surprised that the Ashanti Regional Minister is walking free without any sanctions against him for the arbitrary manner that he discharged his duties in the region.

He said there is a deliberate attempt to describe the family of the slain social activist Macho Kaaka as “criminals” in the media and by government communicators in the media.

Mr Mohammed stated that the family of Macho Kaaka are grieving for their loss but the government is doing everything to blame them for the death of their own who was brutally murdered to the chagrin of Ghanaians.

He said this in an interview with Johnnie Hughes on the New Day show on TV3, Wednesday, September 29.

The Tamale Central legislator was speaking on the back of the release of the Ejura Committee Report into the cause of the arbitrary shooting of unarmed demonstrators by military men in Ejura after the gruesome murder of Ibrahim Anyass Mohammed, popularly known as Macho Kaaka.

“I am sorry to say that they (Ejura Committee) did shambolic work as a committee, and I will tell you why. He himself (Dr Antwi Danso) has indicated that Kaaka’s family thought they were coming to investigate to establish who killed Kaaka but that was not what they were there to do. Yet in their conclusion they found the need to talk about the murder of Kaaka, all in a desperate attempt to absolve government of this murder,” he charged on the New Day show on TV3.