Military apologizes for assaulting media practitioners and some civilians in la land protest
The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has sent its apologies to media practitioners and some other civilians who unfortunately suffered military brutality during a protest at La in Accra.
The military administration has also stated that they are gravely disturbed by the unfortunate incident, and as a matter of urgency, it has commenced a probe into the matter.
It, however, acknowledged that “reasonable force” was used in restraining the protestors. This is because the area where the demonstration took place houses vital military installations which, if destroyed, will negatively impact national security.
“In order to restrain the demonstrators, reasonable force had to be applied to remove them. Thus, in the process, some of the demonstrators or persons got injured. It later came to light that some of the injured persons were journalists who were there to cover the event.”
“GAF seizes this opportunity to apologize to the journalists and all innocent persons who might have been affected by the troops’ effort to clear the unruly demonstrators,” the GAF said in the press statement.
According to GAF, steps will be taken to ensure that such an incident does not recur going forward.
“The Military High Command has directed that the case be investigated to ensure that such unfortunate incident does not occur in future. We once again call on all Ghanaians to follow due process in all their actions with GAF to avoid such unfortunate situations,” it added
This situation was a result of a tussle for land between the military and some indigenes of La. It resulted in a stand off with some residents and even members of the press being beaten in the process.
According to the La indigenes, that parcel of land the military is claiming is rather theirs. According to them, several complaints made to the authorities have fallen on deaf ears hence their protest.
By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh
