Uniformed military personnel seen in several viral videos unleashing violence on residents of Ashaiman, a suburb of Accra, is said to be the results of excesses of a sanctioned operation by the military high command.
Armed soldiers stormed the area Tuesday dawn to effect the arrest of persons suspected to be behind the gruesome murder of a young soldier who is barely a year in the service.
They rounded up several residents – young and old, men and women, children and adults – and beat them to pulp.
Their actions have received mixed reactions from the general public.
Whilst some have cast doubt that the soldiers went to the area with the blessings of their superior, a Deputy Defence Minister has confirmed that indeed the soldiers were deployed there for a special operation.
“It is a military sanctioned coordinated operation to get those behind the murder of a soldier in uniform,” Mr. Kofi Amankwa-Manu told TV3 on Tuesday.
He was shocked that people would still dare to “brutally murder” a soldier in uniform as if no lessons were learnt from the grisly murder of Major Maxwell Mahama at Denkyira Obuasi a few years ago.
“I wonder if it is a crime to wear the uniform,” the Deputy Defence Minister asked rhetorically, adding that the military, the police and other security personnel have been sacrificing their lives to protect the nation and ought to be protected too.
“The military will stop at nothing until the they get the perpetrators of the heinous crime,” Mr. Amankwa-Manu asserted, “It is becoming too many.”
However, he apologised to residents who may have nothing to do with the murder case but were caught up in the operations and suffered due to the excesses.
He said about 70 people have been arrested and are being screened.
According to reports, 22-year-old Imoro Sheriff, the murdered soldier, who is the first of two siblings, was allegedly killed at Taifa, a community in Ashaiman, on March 4, 2023.
He was stabbed to death by unknown assailants.
According to the mother, only his mobile phone was taken away, but his money, tablet and other contents in his bag were intact.