Ejura has been in the news since Saturday because of the murder of one of its residents, Ibrahim Muhammad Anyass, popularly known to his peers and Facebook followers as Macho Kaaka.
The social media activist was murdered in cold blood for expressing his views and creating awareness of the problems within his community while advocating for them to be solved but he met his untimely death when a mob attacked him at dawn on Saturday, June 26, fracturing his skull and leaving him unconscious until his demise on Monday.
Residents of the Ejura community poured onto the streets to protest his murder but the military were deployed to the area. They opened fire killing two pf the protesters and four critically getting injured.
Speaking to Dzifa Bampoh on 3FM’s First Take on Tuesday, June 29, Director at the Faculty of Academic Affairs & Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre Professor Kwesi Aning said the problem transcends Ejura and that it is a sign of nationwide frustration unfolding and being spearheaded by the youth.
“It is not only about Ejura, it is also about the onion sellers at Agbogbloshie resisting the state’s authority to move, it is also about the flow of small arms and this sense that ‘violence is a tool to resolve challenges and problems.’ Ejura epitomizes an increasing frustration among the youth particularly and that frustration must find a way of expressing itself and I am hoping it can be a managed way of expression so that this confrontation that has led to the destruction of properties and lives doesn’t continue.”
He added: “Unfortunately, it is symptomatic of the levels of frustration that we see across the length and breadth of the country.”
Videos of the arrival of the military in the town shows personnel jumping off a vehicle and shooting live bullets into some gathered crowd which resulted in the killing of the two persons and the attempt of the military to wash the blood off the streets.
This Kwesi Aning attributed to the lack of knowledge on crowd control by the security services.
“One of the challenges of all security forces in the country has been about crowd control. And also there has been a number of special commissions of enquiries about the quality, about the effectiveness and the decision making processes of how to use live ammunition and tear gas in crowded areas as a means of controlling the rowdy behaviour of crowds.
“The levels of frustrations and anger that one sees across the country must be managed in such a manner that the security forces that are supposed to ensure our safety are also not perceived to be part of the problem instead of being part of the solution,” he stressed.
The security expert said “we need to find answers to salient questions such as why the police with all the appropriate reinforcement and equipment to be able to calm the crowd were not deployed but rather the military”.
“We need to look at why the police were not sent in with the appropriate reinforcement and equipment to be able to calm the crowd and also the youth of Ejura had also pleaded for some steps and some actions to be taken and when they felt that their concerns from their pain were not responded to, that then led them to the unfortunate and unacceptable violence from their side in destroying property.”
Speaking on the unlawful shooting of the citizens, Prof. Aning said: “It is necessary for there to be a recognition and an insistence that you cannot kill the citizens of your own country in seeking to bring about crowd control. That is not part of the operational methodology and training.”
By Kabah Atawoge|3news.com|Ghana
Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS