By Enoch Fiifi Forson
ACCRA, Ghana (AA) - Ghanaians expressed outrage after soldiers stormed and brutalized residents in Ashaiman in the capital Greater Accra region, in response to the killing of a young soldier, according to media reports.
Videos of soldiers abusing residents surfaced on the internet early Tuesday, leading to criticism as victims have been left traumatized.
"Two soldiers came rushing at me with their guns asking me not to run as they would shoot me. I had no option but to comply, leaving my wife and children in the room. With the gun to my head, I was marched to a point where water had collected after an earlier downpour. I was severely beaten as I laid with face down in the water," one victim told the Joy News channel.
But the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) defended the decision to send troops to the town that is notorious for criminal activity.
According to a statement signed by the Director General of Public Relations of GAF, Brig. Gen. E. Aggrey-Quashie, the motive behind the operation was to apprehend the perpetrators of the crime, rather than seek revenge for the death of the soldier.
“During the course of the swoop, the personnel seized 29 slabs and 57 mini slabs of suspected Indian hemp and amnesia among other forms of the narcotics,” said the statement.
It 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."
The suspects, between 21 and 47 years of age, were handed over to the military police, that subsequently transferred them to the Ghana Police Service for screening and further action.
Sherrif Imoro, a 21-year-old trumpeter in the GAF Band, was allegedly killed by a mob in Ashaiman last Saturday.
He had been visiting his parents in Ashaiman every Friday for the past three weeks while attending a military course in Accra.