Ayawaso violence: Commission of Inquiry strayed from primary mandate – Kan Dapaah

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Minister-designate for National Security, Mr. Albert Kan Dapaah, has disclosed that the government rejected some recommendations of the Ayawaso West Wuogon Commission of Inquiry because it strayed from its primary mandate.

The Commission, he said, failed to abide by its terms of reference and thereby made it impossible for the government to accept its report entirely.

Speaking on Wednesday at the televised public sittings of the Appointments Committee, which is vetting ministerial nominees of President Nana Akufo-Addo, the Minister-designate said that the Commission missed out on two fundamental items of reference.

He said, “The first item was for the members to make full, faithful and impartial inquiry into circumstances of the outbreak of the violence during the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election and to establish the facts leading to the events associated with the violence.”

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“However, when you go through the report you do not find where the Commission responds to the first demand for setting up the probe.”

According to him, the second issue was an assumption by the Commission that the so-called SWAT team involved in the violence was an election security unit.

“It was not. This unit was not responsible for the by-election security because that was the responsibility of the Inspector-General of Police.”

“And yet when you read the Report it was like the SWAT team, which comes nowhere from the Ministry of National Security, took over that responsibility,” he added.

Mr. Kan Dapaah argued that for these fundamental omissions, the government was unable to accept the report in its entirety.

He added that because of this fundamental misunderstanding, which was clear from the Report the government could not also accept all the recommendations as these are not in conformity with why it set up the probe.

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The Government, he said, however, accepted most of the recommendations and is working to implement them.

The National Security Minister-designate noted that what happened at Ayawaso West Wuogon was an unfortunate incident, especially coming on the heels of election violence at Atiwa, Chereponi and Talensi constituencies.

He indicated that because these incidents had been experienced before, Ghanaians thought it was not going to happen again and that the Talensi violence would end it all.

“So when this occurred everybody was alarmed and concerned.”

“The President, however, demonstrated his personal concern and commitment by setting up the Commission and subsequently issued a White Paper.”

“So the Report of the Commission was not jettisoned as it is being claimed, he said.

FrontPageGhana.com/Ghana

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