Ejura: “the protesters fired from the crowd, we only shot those shooting to maim them – Brigadier General Joseph Aphour

post by: Collins for thedistin.com.
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The General Officer Commanding of the Central Command, Brigadier General Joseph Aphour speaking to members of the ministerial committee following the killings of youth at Ejura said his men fired back after verbal warnings to the demonstrators, and several warning shots were ignored by the protesters

When we got to the general area of the cemetery, and they [protesters] started issuing warning threats to the police and military team, we started giving verbal warnings, which we do in the military, but they didn’t listen

So, we fired warning shots, and we realised that some shots were also fired from the crowd. At that stage, it was becoming too bad for civilians to be firing at the security personnel

I think the commander, at that stage, then had to use minimum force by ordering his personnel to begin firing at those who were firing from the crowd to maim them…After our fire, we didn’t have instant deaths. They were evacuated to the hospital, where we later heard two died. But, at the instant of our fire, the crowd withdrew and everything came under our control

he said

This comes after the President of the land Nana Addo Dankwa Addo instructed the Minister for the Interior, Mr Ambrose Dery to probe the circumstances that led to the shooting of two civilians by military personnel during the demonstration by angry youth of Ejura, following the murder of Ibrahim Mohammed aka ‘Kaaka’, a social media activist.