The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has acknowledged that regrettably some innocent persons might have been caught up in a recent operation it conducted and consequently suffered some distress due to the location they found themselves at the time.
It has described the incident as ‘regrettable’.
According to the Military, it had conducted the swoop at Ashaiman to fish out the killers of one of its men, Trooper Imoro Sherrif, but acknowledges that there could have been excesses.
This was contained in a press statement yesterday titled ‘MILITARY CONDUCTS SWOOP AT ASHAIMAN TARGETED AT KILLERS OF YOUNG SOLDIER’.
It was signed by Brigadier General E. Aggrey-Quashie, Director General, Public Relations.
The statement said that personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) on Tuesday 7 March 2023, conducted a swoop in Ashaiman and its environs in a man-hunt for some criminals, who are suspected to have stabbed and killed a young soldier (Trooper Imoro Sherrif) in the early hours of Saturday 4 March 2023 at Ashaiman-Taifa.
Trooper Sherrif, who was stationed in Sunyani, was in Accra on a Course and had sought permission to visit his parents at Ashaiman where he grew up but was found in a pool of blood in the early hours of Saturday near the Amania Hotel in Ashaiman.
GAF stated categorically that the military operation, which was sanctioned by the Military High Command, was NOT to avenge the killing of the soldier but rather to fish out the perpetrators of the heinous crime.
Following the operations at Ashaiman-Taifa and Tulaku, the military personnel picked up about 184 suspects aged between 21 and 47 years old and have since handed them over to the Military Police who will subsequently hand them over to the Ghana Police Service for screening and further action.
During the swoop, the personnel seized 29 slabs and 57 mini slabs of suspected Indian hemp and amnesia respectively among other forms of narcotics.
The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) also placed on record that the swoop was not targeted at innocent civilians but was an intelligence-led operation conducted at suspected hideouts of criminals and crime-prone areas in the general area.
GAF, however, acknowledged that regrettably some innocent persons might have been caught up in the operation and consequently suffered some distress due to the location they found themselves at the time.
GAF accordingly urged the general public to provide useful information, support the Security Agencies in weeding out criminals and miscreants from our communities, and desist from shielding and conniving with such suspects to curb criminal activities in the country.
