Interior Minister, Ambrose Dery, has refuted claims that Police personnel in the country have a penchant for reckless use of live ammunition during any clash with civilians.
Providing updates on the state of investigations into the shooting incident at Lamashegu in the Northern Region, he said the Police have standard procedures they follow when using live bullets.
Although he admitted that it is inappropriate for the Police officers to use live bullets during a clash with the youth of the area, the Nandom lawmaker disagreed with claims that suggest careless use of the ammunition.
“This has been an unfortunate incident and we are dealing with it as seriously as we can, but I cannot see that there is reckless use of live bullets. I have seen in this case the use of live bullets which is inappropriate, that one I accept,” he said.· Lamashegu shootings: ‘There wasn’t any reckless use of live ammunition by Police’ – Ambrose Dery
On Wednesday, February 23, Tamale Central MP, Murtala Ibrahim, asked the Minister to brief Parliament on findings from committees tasked to probe the unfortunate incident which claimed one life.
He cited the Techiman South and Odododiodio shootings to back his claim that a pattern has been established where officers of the law are quick to use firearms to ward off civilians.
His assertions were strongly dismissed by the Interior Minister who said the Police have standard operating procedures they apply whenever they want to use live ammunitions.
“Where was the person hit? All that will be taken into consideration and action will be taken. In this case, we are taking them on two fronts. Is the Police equipped to deal with situations without live bullets?
“Yes, we have rubber bullets that we can use, we have other nonviolent equipment that we can use,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, Ambrose Dery revealed a top team of security personnel have been tasked to retrieve illegal weapons in the country.
This is part of measures put in place by the government to deal with the proliferation of illegal arms. We’ve launched an operation to retrieve illegal weapons in the country – Interior Minister
He says some persons involved in the illicit manufacture of weapons have also been arrested.
“Employment of intelligence-led Police operation to search for, and recover illegal weapons [is ongoing]. I can tell you we are raking a lot under this operation. Stringent measures are put in place at the various entry points to check illegal arms and detect concealed firearms in shipment containers.”
“There are efforts in place to mark all categories of weapons at the magazines of security agencies in the country using the ECOWAS unique marking code. This will make it easier for weapons to be identified and traced to a particular security agencies in the event that such a weapon is found at any crime scene,” he stated.
What happened at Lamashegu
On Sunday, February 13, 2022, the Police clashed with the youth of Lamashegu, a community in the Tamale South Municipality of the Northern region.
The disturbance is reported to have erupted when a young man who was being pursued by the police dashed into the Lamashe-Naa’s Palace to avoid being apprehended by security personnel.
The youth pelted stones at the Police who in turn fired gunshots to disperse the crowd
Several shots were fired and a water cannon was used to disperse the youth.
Subsequently, the Police Service interdicted six officers for their roles in that clash between that claimed one life and got several others injured.
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