Our aim was not to kill protesters at Ejura - Military

According to the army, the military personnel that were sent to Ejura to curtail a demonstration didn’t go there with the aim to kill.

This was disclosed by the Battalion Commander, Lt Col Kwasi Ware at Presidential Committee on the killings in Kumasi.

“There was no plan to kill anyone during the Ejura disturbance. The aim was not to kill, it was just unfortunate. If the aim was to kill then hundred people would have died.”

Brigadier General Josephs Aphour while answering questions posed by members of the Committee justified the use of the military.

He said “My Battalion Commander called me the day of the incident that that was happening in Ejura, the indent that we all know.

“Then I had a call from the Chairman of REGSEC that the situation was getting out of control and that there was the need for us at Operations Calm Lives to move inside, if not things will get out of control.”

The protests in Ejura followed the death of Ibrahim Muhammed.

Ibrahim Muhammed, alias Kaaka, died after he was attacked by a mob on June 27 while returning home.

Two residents of Ejura, Nasir Yussif and Murtala Mohammed, were shot dead by soldiers during a protest against the killing of another native of the town, Ibrahim Mohammed alias Macho Kaaka.

Out of the four other persons who sustained gunshot wounds, one of them, a sixteen year old boy, has had one of his legs amputated at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.