A former Assembly Member for Akyem Hemang in the Eastern Region, Johnson Appiah, has clarified that the uniformed personnel involved in the shooting that killed a young man in the community were not personnel of the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS).
Mr Appiah said residents initially assumed the men were part of NAIMOS because of their military-style uniforms and the nature of their activities, but later established that they were not members of the anti-illegal mining body.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Friday, August 28, Mr Appiah said he had seen the men moving around the community earlier in the day and believed they were conducting an anti-illegal mining operation.
“My community here is the operations of NAIMOS, not any other operation team. So when the incident happened, I even thought it was the NAIMOS people. It was later on that we were able to identify them as not being the NAIMOS people,” he said.
He said the confrontation that led to the death of Douglas Acheampong began when the men stopped an immigration officer, Kwaku Kwebia, who was speaking on the phone and accused him of providing information to miners.
According to Mr Appiah, the men demanded the immigration officer’s phone and subsequently attempted to force him into one of their vehicles after he refused to surrender it.
He said Acheampong intervened in support of the immigration officer and later attempted to flee when the confrontation escalated.
“There was a warning shot. About three warning shots. But finally, we saw the guy falling down, trying to wake up. I even thought they had shot his leg,” Mr Appiah recounted.
He said Acheampong eventually collapsed and could not get up again, after which residents discovered that he had been shot.
“The bullet penetrated. It hit the back and exited from the stomach. So from what I saw, he was shot through the back at close range,” he said.
Mr Appiah said the men, whom he estimated to be about seven, were armed and arrived in several vehicles, including two black V8s and pickup trucks.
He said he was able to identify the registration number of one of the black pickups as CN 7371-25.
He also disputed any suggestion that the security personnel had come under attack from a large crowd.
“It was between the military man and the guy who was making the call, and then his father, and then the guy who was shot dead. So it’s nothing like the military men were attacked or something of that kind,” he said.
The incident occurred at about 7 p.m. on Wednesday, August 26, in the heart of Akyem Hemang. Initial reports linked the shooting to uniformed personnel who residents believed were part of NAIMOS.
NAIMOS has since categorically denied any involvement in the incident.
In a statement issued on August 28, the Secretariat said it “did not conduct any operation at Akyem Hemang or within the area in question, and no NAIMOS personnel were deployed within that jurisdiction at the material time.”
NAIMOS also cautioned against automatically attributing the activities of uniformed personnel or unauthorised anti-illegal mining teams to the Secretariat.
“The mere presence of uniformed personnel at a location does not constitute a NAIMOS operation,” it said.
The Secretariat has called for reports linking it to the shooting to be retracted, corrected and accompanied by an apology.
The latest clarification leaves questions over the identity of the uniformed personnel involved and the circumstances surrounding the shooting that led to Acheampong’s death.
Source | Citinewsroom
