Ayawaso violence: Masked men were not SWAT team members - Police

The Deputy Commissioner of Police in- charge of Operations, George Alex Mensah has denied knowledge of vehicles used by "masked armed" men during the Ayawaso by- elections.

According to him, the vehicles used by that group of armed masked men is not part of the pool of Vehicles used by the Ghana Police Services.

The National Operations never uses such vehicles and ever since I took over, I’ve never seen such vehicles at the National Operations Department

The DCOP also denied knowledge of the masked armed men, adding that they were not part of his men deployed to work on the day.

He insisted they were neither members of the SWAT team nor were they deployed by the Police service to monitor the polls.

“I did not know who the masked men were. I will be surprised that they were members of the SWAT team. That vehicle is not part of those under my command and the police have never used that vehicle before.” he said.

"I heard on air that, that they are from the National Security" he said.

DCOP Mensah was confident that ‘there was no break in security order with regards to the Ayawaso by-elections’ as far as he is concerned. The police would have made a request and given reasons why the services of any such unit was needed if there was the need.

“The military will only be called in when they are needed and even then, they will be told why they are called and what they are to do”.

“No other unit took part in the election policing, if any other unit participated, that I don’t know of”, he said.



DCOP George Alex Mensah’s testimony at the Emile Short Commission Friday is in sharp contrast to those of the National Security chiefs who appeared before the same Commission on Thursday claiming that the said vehicle belongs to the Police SWAT team and the men occupying them were members of the National Security.