Wa brutalities: Soldiers punished

The military personnel who took part in the recent brutalities against some civilians in Wa, the Upper West regional capital, have been punished.

Only the Duty Officer was spared.

The soldiers brutalised the civilians while searching for a stolen mobile phone of one of their colleagues.

A four-member committee that probed the incident has submitted it preliminary findings, which said a total of 86 soldiers were involved in the misconduct.

The Orderly has been demoted from Staff Sergeant to Corporal.

Also, the Guard Commander and Sentry have been demoted from Corporal and Lance Corporal, respectively to Private.

The Duty officer, a Lieutenant, is yet to be tried.

Eight others, all private soldiers, who are among 30 of the 86 identified soldiers, who have already been tried, have been sentenced to a 30-day detention.

The erring soldiers passed out between April 30, 2021, and June 4, 2021, and were posted to the 10 Mechanised Battalion Aggrey barracks.

The four-member committee under the auspices of the National Security office, is made up of personnel from the military and the National Investigation Bureau (NIB).

Led by Colonel B. Z Ayorrogo, the other members include Lt Col George Eduah Beesi, Francis Aboagye and Maxwell Dassah.

They found that eleven civilians suffered various degrees of injury as a result of the assault.

One of the injured persons is Gafur Mohammed, who suffered fractures.

Also, the committee found that 13 mobile phones, a tricycle and an amount of GHS1,460 got missing during the raid by the soldiers.

So far, seven of the phones have been found and the rickshaw returned to its owner.

Source: Class