Asaawase Killings: 250k compensation fee peanut – Spokesperson

Yussif Ganiyu, spokesperson for Justice for Zongo community in Asaawase says the group is more interested in justice than the GHS250,000 as compensation fees.  

Seven men were killed in Asaawase in the Ashanti Region in July 2018. The seven were allegedly mistaken by the police for members of an eight-man armed robbery gang that attacked a sprinter bus, shot dead a police officer with the SWAT Unit of the Ashanti Regional Police Command near Manso Nkwanta in the Amasie West District of the region.

The deceased officer, Lance Corporal Daniel Teiku, was on duty with his colleague, Lance Corporal Eric Nsiah, when eight armed men attacked the vehicle they were travelling in at Ayirebikrom near Manso Nkwanta on July 13.

The killings on July 7, 2018, which did not go down well with some irate youth of Asaawase, led to the blocking of all roads leading to the area from the Kumasi Central mosque. They argued that the 7 were not armed robbers.

A seven-member committee was finally instituted to investigate the killings. The committee has in a report, interdicted some twenty-one (21) police personnel and are to be subjected to a formal criminal investigation for their alleged role in the killing of seven Zongo youth at Manso Nkwanta in the Ashanti Region on July 17, 2018 on the grounds that it found no evidence that the deceased persons were armed robbers.

The President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo in a meeting with the Asaawase Zongo community, announced that the government has released a sum of GHS250,000 which will be allocated to families of the 7 men.

Speaking to Kaakyire Ofori Ayim on Atinka AM Drive, Yussif Ganiyu, spokesperson for Justice for Zongo community in Asaawase noted that although the money is only a compensation, the Zongo community will be more appreciative if justice was served.

“We understand that the monies will cushion the families but ultimately, we want to see Justice, not the monies. We want to see that the wicked people who were behind these killings are brought to book," he added.

The group also called on government to ask the former Ashanti Regional Police commander, DCOP Mensah Doku to resign with immediate effect from the police service.

The Ashanti Regional Police Command had initially claimed that the seven, all residents of Asaawase Zongo in Kumasi were armed robbers who exchanged fire with the police. 

Ghana | Atinkaonline.com | Vivian Adu Boatemaa 

 

 

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