A spokesperson for Kaaka’s family has said that the Ejura Committee had no mandate to investigate the death of Social activist, Kaaka Macho.
Speaking at a presser Monday morning, Abdul Nafiu Mohammed also said the three-member Committee “had no mandate to establish who killed him or why Kaaka was killed”.
The family said they would like to know the person who killed Kaaka, hence there should be due diligence in finding the “persons connected to his death, properly, carefully, and justifiably established. That is what justice means to us”
The family’s comments come at the back of the three-member committee releasing ten recommendations for government’s consideration.
The Committee was set up to probe circumstances leading to the clash between Police cum Military personnel and the irate youth of Ejura that led to the death of two persons on June 29.
He also recalled that the family did not want to appear before the committee, and that was established in a letter to the Interior Minister and the Committee
“As we told them, the reason why we decided not to appear before the Committee was because we were concerned that the Committee was consistently departing from its clear mandate to investigate the circumstances under which our military went into Ejura and shot live bullets into a crowd, killing civilians and maiming several others. We were concerned that their work had become very unfocused and was all over the place”.
Here are excerpts from the letter:
a. We were concerned about the continuous encroachment of the Committee into questions which, as we understood, were the object of a separate and concurrent criminal investigation.
b. We were doubtful of the prudence in the Committee’s decision to extend its inquiry into questions which the Ghana Police Service had publicly claimed were part of its investigation into the brutal murder of our son, husband, and father, Ibrahim ‘Kaaka’ Mohammed.
c. We reiterated our concern that the Committee was receiving testimony from persons who could potentially be called to testify in the criminal trial relating to the murder of Kaaka, or in the subsequent criminal trial of the individuals who are criminally culpable of the shooting of unarmed civilians and children in Ejura.
d. We noted, in particular, the failure of the Committee to advise witnesses of their constitutional right against self-incrimination; of their right to attend the hearings with the assistance of counsel; and failing to advise them that nothing they say before the Committee was privileged and that all could be adduced against them in a criminal trial.”
He said that regardless of informing the Authorities about their absence from the investigations, they appeared before the Committee against their will.
He said that the only reason why they appeared was that they wanted to encourage other affected families from the Ejura protest to feel more confident in appearing before the Committee.
“Despite all this, the Committee still went ahead and made 40% of their findings about the murder investigations into the death of Kaaka. They also made statements that even common sense would have told them was improper. By so doing, they clearly prejudiced the criminal investigations into Kaaka’s murder.”