The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has rendered an apology over assault meted out to residents and journalists during a land protest at La.
The group, Coalition of La Associations within the La Traditional Council stormed the about 200-acre land in contention between Tse Addo and Airport Hills, around the Military Cemetery to register their displeasure over military encroachment.
The outfit has explained it received intelligence on the morning of Thursday, April 15, 2021, that some civilians were demonstrating and moving towards Burma Camp.
“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 outfit said.
A statement signed by the Director of Public Relations, Colonel Aggrey-Quashie noted a reconnaissance team was then dispatched to the site.
“They confirmed the reports but could not determine the intentions of the demonstrators but the group who had no police permit on seeing the soldiers became violent,” it explained.
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It, however, acknowledged that “reasonable force” used in restraining the protestors since the site for the demonstration houses vital military installations which, if destroyed, will negatively impact national security.
“The statement added: “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.”
Meanwhile, GAF has assured steps will be taken to ensure that such an event does not recur going forward, the incident was unfortunate.
“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 assured.
