The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has clarified that the operation by the military at Ashaiman, a suburb of Accra, which saw some level of brutalities being meted out to residents by the soldiers, was not for revenge.
A statement issued by GAF and signed by Brigadier General E Aggrey-Quashie, Director General Public Relations, said the operation was a sanctioned a swoop in a man-hunt for some criminals.
This follows the murder of a young soldier, Trooper Imoro Sherrif, on Saturday dawn at Ashaiman-Taifa.
“The military operation, which was sanctioned by the Military High Command, was NOT to avenge the killing of the soldier but rather to fish out the perpetrators of the heinous crime,” the statement maintained.
A number of short videos shared on social media show armed military personnel brutalising residents of the area on Tuesday dawn.
According to GAF, during the course of their operation, they seized 29 slabs and 57 mini slabs of suspected Indian hemp and amnesia among other forms of the narcotics.
Also, about 184 suspects aged between 21 and 47 years old were arrested and handed over to the military police who will subsequently send them over to the Ghana Police Service for screening and further action.
“The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) also wishes to place on record that the swoop was not targeted at innocent civilians but was an intelligence–led operation conducted on suspected hideouts of criminals and crime-prone areas in the general area,” they stressed.
“GAF however acknowledges that regrettably some innocent persons might have been caught up in the operation and consequently suffered some distress due to the location they found themselves at the time,” the statement noted.
The Ghana Armed Forces has also urged the general public to “provide useful information, support the security agencies in weeding out criminals and miscreants from our communities and to desist from shielding and conniving with such suspects in order to the curb criminal activities in the country.”
Read also: Soldiers who brutalised Ashaiman residents were on sanctioned operation – Defence Ministry