Expand remit of military operations – Aning to Akufo-Addo

Security analyst Prof Kwesi Aning has called on President Nana Akufo-Addo to expand the remit of the military’s operations.

He is also asking the president to add weapon recovery operation as in the case of the Dome Faase incident to the job of the military.

The incident saw two military personnel beaten to pulp by irate youth and one civilian sustaining gun injuries over land issues.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo during his one-day tour of the Volta region announced he will set up a committee to investigate the reported military brutalities that characterized the just ended voter’s registration exercise.

Justifying the call, Prof Aning who is the Director of Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center said there had been very subtle shift in the relationship between the military and the general public.

Speaking on ‘Analyses’, he said “the military has withdrawn because they undertook a particular operation, they finished it and they moved back to the barracks. It’s now time for us to say, ‘hang on, how did we get here.'”

He indicated “and that is why I’m making an appeal to his excellency the president if he can expand the remit of the performance of the military during the just ended registration exercise. And add this particular case also to it. And probably a third remit about the wider use of the military in internal operations, when those operations don’t threaten the existence of the state.”

“Their visibility has been shaken, they’ve been undermined, but in particular situations when people show enough force, they will retreat. So, we need to go back to the drawing board as quickly and possible and ensure that these cases do not happen.”



He stressed: “What happened in this town is not just about the military. Who issued the order? If the military has been used in a manner it ought not to have been used then we need to understand. And that is why the appeal to his excellency the president to expand the remit of what the military did during the just ended registration,” he added.