Mr Speaker, I thank you for
giving me the opportunity to make some
few remarks following the presentation of
the Report of the Committee on Defence
and Interior, presented by the Hon Vice
Chairman of the Committee.
Mr Speaker, I am an Hon Member of
this august Committee and part of the
delegation that went to Wa for this
investigation. So, I wish to thank you, Mr
Speaker, for facilitating our trip to Wa,
and for supporting us to be there for two
or three days, and it is with the help of the
Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) of
the Upper West Regional Administration
that we did this work.
Mr Speaker, what are the facts of this
matter? It is important that Hon Members
who are not Members of the Committee
on Defence and Interior should be able to
know the basic facts of this matter.
Mr Speaker, there is now established
for the first time, the 10 Mechanised
Battalion, which is a military detachment
in Wa in the Upper West Region. Why
were they established there? They were
sent there about a year ago because of the
jihadist and the extremist threats from the
sahelian countries, particularly, Burkina
Faso because the Upper West Region
shares a border with Burkina Faso. As
Ghana government wanted to maintain
the integrity of this country, it moved a
battalion to Wa called 10 Mechanised
Battalion for the purpose of protecting us.
The fact is that a day before the 1st of
July, two soldiers of the 10 Mechanised
Battalion went to town to have lunch. On
their way back, they boarded a campboo,
those lorries they call “John Mahama can do”. They were in the car going back to the barracks and one of them had a call
from his mother and was talking to her.
While talking, two people approached on
a motor bike and snatched the phone from
this soldier. When the soldiers wanted to
challenge them, the rider pulled a knife,
and said that if the soldiers joked, they
would stab them. So, the campboo rider
sped off with the soldier and they went to
the barracks. The following day, about 50
to 80 soldiers were mobilised to go back
to Wa township to search for the two
people who snatched their phones. They
did not report the case to the police or to
anybody. They just told their immediate
commander because the Commander for
that area had travelled to Accra so there
was a young lieutenant who was in charge
of them. They told him, and the 50 to 80
soldiers marched into Wa township to
look for these two civilians and retrieve
the phone.
What happened when they got to Wa
township? They started brutalising
civilians indiscriminately. They pulled
people out from their shops and beat
them. They beat passersby and drivers - both men and women. People were made
Investigative Report on the Incident of Military Brutality on Civilians in Wa
to roll on the ground and so on until
people complained here and there and
about an hour or two later, their
commander reached out to them in town
and said they should come back, and they
went back. This is the background. These
are the main facts from which I want to
make some few observations.
First and foremost, as I said earlier,
this is the first time that we have a
detachment of army in Wa and the
purpose was to protect the citizens against
terrorists, jihadists, extremists, et cetera.
The purpose is not to go and brutalise
civilians. I thought that if that incident
took place, the first thing the soldiers had
to do was to report to the Police, who are
trained to investigate and identify
criminals and apprehend them or even
report to their senior officers and then
they would have a way to reach out to
their counterparts in other services so that
they could retrieve the phones, if any.
They did not do that. As my Hon
Colleagues have said, they decided to go
to town and beat people and take the law
into their own hands, which was very
unfortunate.
Mr Speaker, it is important to note the
date of this incident. It was on the 1st of
July, 2021. My worry is: do the soldiers
know the importance and significance of
the 1st of July in the political history of
this country? That it was a day that we
had, not just our independence but a
Republican status. Do they also know that
it was a day that we had our sovereignty
from our colonial masters and that it is a
sovereign day for us; a day when the
Ghanaian personality is personified? If
they were trained to understand this, they
would not use the 1st of July to go to town
and attack civilians; they would not do
that. That is the most unfortunate part of
it. So, I think that one aspect of the
training of these young officers and
recruits should not just be the military
training and drills but civil education,
political education, and civilian-military
relationships. That is very important.
Mr Speaker, another very important
observation is that on that day, there were
policemen and policewomen in Wa but
they stood aloof. They did not ask the
soldiers what they were doing or indicate
that they were there to keep law and
order. When we asked the Police why
they did that, they said they wanted to
avoid a head on collision between the
Police and the Military; that should they
make the mistake and intervene they
would rather be attacked by the Military
and they wanted to avoid that
confrontation.
What does this tell us? It tells us that
we do not have a mutual goodwill and
relationship between the Military and the
Police, which is a very dangerous
situation for us. Those who are to take
care of our lives and protect our country
do not co-exist. Mutual suspicion and
disrespect between the Police and the
Military - So, Mr Speaker, what is our fate? I think it is important that with this
Investigative Report on the Incident of Military Brutality on Civilians in Wa
background, you use your good Office to
appeal to the military high command and
the police high command so that they see
how they can reconcile their differences,
if any at all, to see how they can manage
their egos and work as a team for the
betterment of this country. This turf war
between the Military and the Police
would not help us. It is very important
because if the Police had inquired what
the soldiers were doing and had informed
them that what they were doing was not
good, and if they had even persuaded
them to go back and address the issue, the
excesses would not have been committed.
However, they said that they would
not do it because it would lead to a
different story. So, I think that there must
be co-existence between the Military and
the Police and we must do so sooner than
later.
Mr Speaker, I think that the Military
has a case to answer. As I said earlier, we
know why they were sent there and they
defeated that purpose. How can you beat
people to retrieve a phone? Just one
phone and between 100 and 200 people
suffered for that; extreme excesses, and
that is very unfortunate in this modern
era.
So, I want us to take this Report very
seriously and then try to see how we can
bring the two institutions together and try
and educate the security personnel in the
country. For some time now, Police
brutalities on civilians have been
recuring; Military excesses and
brutalities are now coming to the fore.
The respect - We all know that the Ghana Army and the Police have won
international accolades for this country.
They have gone for peace-keeping
outside this country, and have won a lot
of respect for this country; they are very
professional, particularly the Military, so
why are they doing this in their own
country? They behave very well outside
their country, but in their own country,
their behaviour is different. The Military
is taking the respect that we have given
them for granted. It is high time we told
them that nobody is above the law. We
have a role to play as civilians, and they
as security men, and therefore, we should
all come together to develop this country.
Mr Speaker, in conclusion, I would
want to observe that as the Hon Ranking
Member, Mr Agalga said, the Military
acted timeously, the Hon Minister for
Defence was there and they tried to
broker the peace. We must also thank the
overlord of Wa, Wa Naa, Naa Fuseini
Seidu Pelpuo IV. He received us very
well, and he controlled his people so that
there would not be any retaliation. If it
were another place, by the time you
know, the youth would have taken to the
streets and that would have been very
unfortunate, but the chief was able to
contain the situation, and there was no
escalation of violence in Wa. We should
Investigative Report on the Incident of Military Brutality on Civilians in Wa
commend the Paramount Chief of the Wa
Traditional Area, the Military and the
Hon Minister for Defence.
Mr Speaker, finally, with the greatest
of respect to the Leadership of this House,
this Report has become more or less stale.
For the past three to five months, I have
been following Leadership to take the
Report. If we had taken it at the time that
the matters were still fresh in people's minds, we would have known how to
address it. Now, many Hon Members
sitting here do not know what to say. It is
those of us who went for this exercise
who are conversant with the facts now.
The Report had delayed for about six
months or more when we have gone and
returned. What is the point in spending so
much money, time and energy to travel to
Wa and come back only for the Report to
gather dust in shelves? There are other
reports that are outstanding. I think that
we should resolve that when a Report is
tabled and brought back, we should take
it timeously so that we can have its effect.
Mr Speaker, on that note, I thank you
and the House for this opportunity, and I
pray that the Military would continue the
good work it does, and not do anything
that would lead to their disrespect or
make Ghanaians have a second thought
about them.
Mr Speaker, I thank you very much.
