Ranking Member on the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament, Peter Lachene Toobu
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Wa West Constituency in the Upper East Region and a Ranking Member on the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament has said although security swoops may cause result in human rights abuses, it is another form of intelligence gathering.
According to him, even though many human rights activists have raised issues with the use of swoops, it remains a form of intelligence gathering in criminal investigations.
Mr Peter Lachene Toobu said this while discussing the Ashaiman military swoop over the killing of a soldier on Tuesday, March 7, 2023.
Speaking in an interview on the 'Ghana Yensom' morning show hosted by Odehyeeba Kofi Essuman on Accra 100.5 FM on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, the lawmaker said activists are against swoops because of the way the victims are drilled among others.
"Like what happened in the Ashaiman military swoop to find the killers of the slain soldier, that is what is problematic when it comes to the use of swoops," he admitted.
He said it is the reason after a swoop, the victims or suspects are quickly screened and those who are not connected to the crime are left to go.
He stressed that what happened in Ashaiman is a murder case which falls within the mandate of the police service and not the military.
He noted that it will take the crime scene unit of the Ghana Police Service to unravel the killers of the slain soldier.
He argued that nobody will kill a soldier and go to sleep in his or her room and so "It may even be the case that the body was carried to the area where the military embarked on their swoop"
He said what happened at Ashaiman will create a gap between the military and the citizenry and “this does not build a military-civilian relationship.”
