The opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC, believes the Justice Koomson Committee that probed the Ejura disturbances, did nothing but a “poor attempt at a cover-up.”
It said the three-member committee failed in its mandate and produced a report that is full of faults and recommendations that will amount to nothing.
Speaking at a press conference, National Communications Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi, said the party’s scrutiny of the report is a clear indication of the government’s unwillingness to be accountable to Ghanaians in the aftermath of the unrest that left two people dead and four others injured.
“After an objective and painstaking examination of the report, we take the view that the committee’s report is a poor attempt at a cover-up. The report is full of faulty findings, flawed conclusions, and deficient recommendations, calculated to shield from accountability the murderers of a social activist, Ibrahim Muhammed aka “Maacho Kaaka” and the perpetrators of the subsequent state-sponsored killings in Ejura by the military”,
“Nothing could be further from the truth than this claim by the committee, and we in the NDC are appalled by the very laboured, albeit unsuccessful, an attempt by the committee to shield the perpetrators of that heinous crime from liability and punishment. That finding flies in the face of the facts and cannot be accepted by the Ghanaian people, who expected nothing short of the truth from any impartial inquiry worth its salt into the sad events that unfolded at Ejura”, Sammy Gyamfi added.
Following the conclusion of the committee’s work, it linked the death of the social activist Kaaka, which sparked the unrest in the community, to a family feud and not to his social media activism as had been widely claimed.
But the NDC maintains that it was a deliberate attempt by the committee to achieve the government’s rationale of instituting the committee.
It said despite the clear evidence that Kaaka was killed as a result of his social activism, the committee decided to sweep that under the carpet, adding that:
“It does appear that relinking Kaaka from the “Fix the country” conversation was the main reason for the setting up of the Justice Koomson Committee, and that is precisely what they have done. To have ignored the material facts and rather come to such a contrived finding of a family feud easily gives the Justice Koomson Committee out as one with an agenda to twist the facts right from the word go. ”
In addition, the NDC stated the failure of the committee to recommended sanctions for the military whose actions incensed the angry youth leading to the chaos is proof the committee did a rather poor job.
Kaaka died on Monday, June 28, 2021, after he was attacked by unknown assailants while returning home from an event he attended in the area.
Earlier reports suggested that Kaaka was killed because of his social activism, which some persons felt was making the government unpopular, but police reports suggest otherwise after three people including his brother were arrested and put before the court over the killing.
The Interior Ministry subsequently constituted a three-member committee chaired by Justice George Kingsley Koomson to probe the issue and make recommendations.
The family of Kaaka has also described as careless the committee’s claim that a supposed family feud led to Kaaka’s death.
In its ten recommendations, the Ejura committee recommended the removal of the MCE for the area, though he was not nominated to continue in that position.
It also recommended the immediate transfer of the District Police commander of Ejura, DSP Philip Kojo Hammond, over his handling of the situation.
The military establishment was also cited by the committee for the inappropriate use of force, with the committee calling for sanctions.
