Most unfortunate and unacceptable – Ayariga condemns military brutalities in Garu
The Member of Parliament for Bawku Central Constituency, Mahama Ayariga, has condemned the attack by the military on residents of Garu and Bugri in the Upper East Region.
He described the soldiers action as “barbaric and unacceptable” in the current democratic dispensation of the nation.
Personnel from the Ghana Armed Forces allegedly assaulted residents of Garu and Bugri during a dawn raid on October 28 in what residents rumoured to be retaliation for an attack on some National Security operatives that occurred on October 24.
The team of five counter-terrorism intelligence officers deployed by the Ministry of National Security to Garu on the operation was attacked by an irate youth group armed with AK 47 rifles, machetes, and other weapons.
This preliminary attack on the officers triggered the attack on the residents by the military, which led to injuries to some residents currently receiving treatment in health facilities.
But the Bawku MP said following perennial calls he received the dawn of Saturday, he reached out to the National Security Minister, Albert Kan Dapaah, who denied knowledge of the operation.
“The Minister was in Europe then”, the Bawku Central MP said.
The minister further called on the National Security Minister to conduct a thorough investigation that led to the attack on ‘innocent’ residents of Garu and Bugri.
“I will join my fellow Members of Parliament from the Upper East Region to call for a full-scale inquiry into what happened,” he indicated in a statement on Monday, October 30.
“I recall being involved in a discussion with the Minister for National Security a few days earlier about some national security operatives who had been stopped in Garu and handed over to the police”.
“I saw media reports of alleged shooting of the vehicle used by the national security operatives by unknown persons in the Garu area”.
He stressed that “if the incident is a retaliation by the soldiers, this will be most unfortunate and unacceptable in today’s Ghana, and he has to get to the bottom of the matter and hold the military personnel involved in this dastardly act accountable” he added.