Military brutalities on Ashaiman residents threat to Ghana’s democracy – Asah Asante

A senior lecturer at the University of Ghana (UG), Dr. Asah Asante has stated that the military brutalities meted out to the residents of Ashaiman on Tuesday, March 7 2023 is a threat to Ghana’s democracy.

This comes on the back of the Ghana Police Service arrest of six persons in connection with the killing of a soldier at Ashaiman. They were put before court on Monday, March 13, 2023, and remanded.

The Police Service said on 4th March 2023, they received information that a male adult had been found lying dead at Ashaiman Taifa in the Greater Accra Region.

According to the Police, a team of Police officers proceeded to the said location and confirmed the incident.

Police immediately commenced an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of the victim. The officers cordoned off the scene and called in the specialist Police Crime Scene team to process the scene for forensic analysis.

Commenting on the issues on Morning Starr with Francis Abban, the senior lecturer described the actions of the military as unfortunate and undemocratic.

“It doesn’t matter the problem one has, you need to take it through the rule of law and for the soldiers on their own to go there and carry out what they did is so unfortunate because it flies in the face of rule of law, it flies in the face of democracy. One of the tenets of democracy is human rights, human rights must be upheld at all times. So it doesn’t matter what your case or whatever the case is you need to uphold human rights.

“This one, the exercise they (military) undertook flies in the face of democracy. I am not supporting the killing of the officer, I will never do that and nobody does that. It’s unfortunate that the gentleman has been killed. But when we want to know the truth we need to use the law because the law is the basis,” Mr. Asante stated.

He continued: “For the army to go there on their own that was unfortunate. The process they subjected people to, people who have no hand in the process and subjecting them to degrading and inhumane treatment was very unfortunate. So various aspects of democratic tenets were affected. I have realized that we need to strengthen our democratic education.”

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