Ministerial committee must probe alleged Nkoranza killing by police – Kpemka
The former Deputy attorney general, Joseph Dindiok Kpemka has urged the minister of interior to set up a ministerial committee to probe the circumstances surrounding the alleged killings in Nkoranza South.
Speaking on Asaase Radio’s news analysis and current affairs programme, The Forum, on Saturday (21 May), Kpemka said: “I think that this is not in isolation. What I am calling on is the minister [for interior] should intervene, put up a committee, let’s go into the nitty-gritty of it.”
“What were the remote causes, first? And what were the immediate causes? What are the things we can do to ensure that these things do not recur?”
He added that “but, I just want to once again plead with us as leaders, that our comments have the potential of putting the nation in jeopardy and we should be very careful when we’re running those commentaries.”
Independent body must probe police over Nkoranza killing
Meanwhile, the Africa office of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) is demanding a full-scale independent investigation into the alleged killing of a man in Nkoranza by the police.
According to CHRI, private citizens who are arrested have the right to a fair trial, right to life and due process must be followed to bring them to justice.
CHRI stated that summary execution or killing is not part of Ghana’s democratic practice and certainly not an acceptable process in democratic and rights-centred policing.
The deceased
Albert Donkor was on 25 April, picked up at his mother’s residence at Kasadjan in the Nkoranza municipality by the police on suspicion of a robbery that had occurred on the Nkoranza-Kintampo road.
The deceased was reportedly sent to the bush and allegedly shot by some police officers after which his body was transferred to Accra.
Unsettling events
However, a statement issued by the Africa office of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative said they find the “events unsettling.”
The statement said: “We find these events unsettling because the right to life, the right to personal liberty and the right to a fair trial are rights guaranteed under Chapter Five of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution and Articles 15 (1) and (2) of the 1992 Constitution which provide in no uncertain terms for the respect for human dignity.”
It added that “CHRI demands that the State should set up an independent body to investigate the death of Albert Donkor and the outcome of the investigation should be made public, the police officers found culpable should be prosecuted and duly punished, and adequate compensation should be paid to the family of Albert Donkor.”
