The 4BN Commander of the Ghana Armed Forces, Lt Col Kwasi Ware Peprah, says it was not the aim of his men to shoot and kill during the Ejura riots.
Describing the incident as unfortunate, he stated no lives were to be lost in the process.
“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,” he said when he appeared before the three-member committee probing the incident.
A shooting incident on Tuesday, June 29, 2021, led to the death of two persons; Nasiru Abdul Yussif and Muntala Mohammed.
They were part of an irate youth protesting the death of a social media activist, Ibrahim Mohammed aka Kaaka Macho.
Kaaka Macho died from head injuries three days after being admitted at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, following an alleged mob attack.
However, a combined police-military team deployed to maintain peace and order reportedly fired shots into the crowd, killing two people and four injured.
Commenting on the deployment for that day Lt Col Peprah said they had a distress call from the Chairman of REGSEC, who is also the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei- Mensah.
“My Battalion Commander called me on the day of the incident about what was happening in Ejura, the indent that we all know.
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“Then I had a call from the Chairman of REGSEC that the situation was getting out of control and there was the need for us at Operations Calm Lives to move inside, if not things will get out of control,” he narrated.
Meanwhile, the Chair of the Committee, who is also a Court of Appeal Judge, George Kingsley Koomson, recommended that the agency applies for plastic bullets to use in controlling crowd in Ghana instead of live bullets which could be fatal.