By Iddi Yire, GNA
Accra, Mar 01, GNA - The Ayawaso West Wuogon Commission of Inquiry on Friday inspected scenes of the violence that broke out at La-Bawaleshie on January 31, during the Parliamentary by-election.
The fact-finding exercise was to apprise and furnish the Commission with corroborative evidence or otherwise relative to the testimonies given before it.
Mr Justice Francis Emile Short, the Chairman of the Ayawaso West Wuogon Commission of Inquiry, led the delegation.
Other members are Professor Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, an eminent professor in criminal law and Mr Patrick Kwarteng Acheampong, a former Inspector General of Police (IGP), with Dr Ernest Kofi Abotsi, a private legal practitioner, and a former Dean of the GIMPA Law School, as the Executive Secretary.
In attendance also was Mr Eric Osei-Mensah, Counsel of the Commission.
The Commissioners were conducted around the scenes of the violence jointly by Detective Chief Inspect Abudulai Jallo-Sulemana of the East Legon Police Station and Mr Micheal Cudjoe, a Ballistic Expert at the Forensic Laboratory of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service.
The tour took them to the La-Bawaleshie Presbyterian Basic One School, where a polling station was cited on the day of the by-election and to the residence of Mr Delali Kwesi Brempong, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary candidate in the by-election.
Mr Cudjoe showed the Commissioners two bullet marks on each of the four trees in front of Mr Brempong's residence.
He also showed them three bullet marks on a metal contain and bullet marks on the wall opposite gate of Mr Brempong's residence.
Other scenes were three blood spots on the ground.
In addition, there were evidence of a bullet mark on a van and another bullet mark which penetrated and went out of a metal container, which was being used as a hairdressing saloon.
The Commissioner entered the compound of Mr Brempong and had a word with him.
Speaking to the media prior to the genesis of the tour, Mr Short said the purpose of the visit was for the Commission to inspect where the incident took place; the shootings, as well as other activities that occurred on the day in question.
"It is important that we inspect the location, so we can relate the testimonies of the witnesses to the location to see the directions for example from which shots were fired, to see the house in which the event took place," he stated.
He said the purpose of the meeting was really to enable the Commission inspect the location of the incident that took place.
"We are not going to take testimonies of witnesses, we are merely here to examine the location and then we will look at the testimonies of witnesses to the location that we would inspect at this moment."
At the end of the exercise, Dr Abotsi said the essence of the exercise was basically for them to just have a locus inspection; to see things for themselves.
"I think the Commission has seen things that a thousand words can't relay," he said.
"The Commission has had first time opportunity to inspect bullet holes, to inspect angles of penetration, to speak to people on the ground, to inspect potential dangers that could have occurred if it wasn't for the intervention of God," he added.
Dr Abotsi said by reason of this the Commission had had an opportunity to inspect for itself the things that it heard.
"And therefore, we can now relate to the things that we heard in sitting to the things that we inspected in practice and be able to come with the outcome that best supports the fact."
He said because ultimately this was a fact-finding mission and one couldn't conduct a fact-finding mission without actually visiting the locus.
"Today's work is the concretisation of the past hearings. The Commission hopes to meet the deadline that has been set by the President," he said.
"The Commission is working with a very tight schedule but it expects to continue sitting on Monday and the rest of next week."
Dr Abotsi said as the Commission prepares to bring its work to a close, it was going to be able to synthesise the fact, which it had seen at the scene of the violence together with the oral evidence that had been left before it by various witnesses.
"In the end the commission recommendations and the findings it will come out with must support the fact, because this is the fact-finding mission," he stated.
Following outbreak of violence on January 31, during the Ayawaso West Wuogon Parliamentary by-election, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo setup the Commission to conduct a far-reaching investigation, which would sustain the peace of the nation.
The Commission has adjourned sitting to Monday, March 4.
GNA
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