Group demands release of 180 army-detained Ashaiman residents

A group called Ashaiman Lives Matter has called on President Nana Akufo-Addo to immediately order the release of all the residents of Ashaiman arrested by army personnel in the area on 7 March 2023 in an attempt to fish out some persons suspected to have murdered a young soldier in the area.

In a sanctioned military operation in Ashaiman with armoured vehicles and a chopper on Tuesday, 7 March 2023, the residents were brutalised and 182 of them rounded up and handed over to the military police.

Some residents, out of fear, remained indoors all day in what appeared to be an unsanctioned curfew imposed on the town.

The army, having admitted in a statement that the operation was sanctioned by the military high command, however, said it was not to avenge the killing of the soldier, Trooper Imoro Sherrif, but rather, to fish out the perpetrators of the crime.

Reacting to the event, the Ashaiman Lives Matter group in a statement urged the President to set up a committee to investigate the criminal acts of the soldiers and punish the culprits.

The group also wants the President to direct the Defence Minister to pay for all the damaged properties of Ashaiman residents caused by the soldiers and adequately compensate all victims of the military brutality.

The group further condemned the murder of the young soldier, Trooper Imoro Sherrif, and called on the Police to speed up their investigations and bring the perpetrators to book.

In a statement, they also demanded an apology from the President as the Commander-in-Chief of the GAF and called on the Ghana Bar Association, media and civil society to condemn the actions of the soldiers.