He sounded very authoritative on the subject matter of why what happened in Ashaiman happened – the killing of Trooper Imoro in cold blood by civilians, and the invasion of Ashaiman by some personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces.
Col Festus Aboagye (Rtd), a security analyst, when speaking to Citi TV came out with strong words attributing the invasion to misdeeds by those in political office under this current administration, which is misapplying mandates. He said: “When the state misapplies the GAF for that matter, the military and other security institutions, it is only a matter of time before those institutions will misapply their mandate, and that is what we saw in Ashaiman.”
He cited using soldiers for the voters’ registration exercise, for voting at polling station, Ayawaso to be specific, soldiers escorting the Electoral Commissioner and deploying the military to Parliament during the election of a new Speaker. He forgot to tell us that during the 1992, 1996 and 2000 General Elections, Rawlings mandated that troops were positioned in almost all polling stations.
Well, I am not a security expert, but I do not see how misapplication of mandates resulted in what happened in Ashaiman. After the killing of Imoro, the military heard this disturbing and sad news and adopted their Abantu Convention, Touch-One-Touch-All and did what all Ghanaians know they are capable of doing under such circumstance.
Looking at the examples, Col Aboagye (Rtd) gave as misapplication of mandate, nothing specifically points out to them in Constitutional provisions he made references to.
Art. 210 for example talks about the Armed Forces of Ghana and its various services. Specifying that there shall be no other armed force, except by Act of Parliament. Art. 210 (3), which talks about the mandate of the Ghana Armed Forces, has this to say: The Armed Forces shall be equipped and maintained to perform their role of defense of Ghana as well as such other functions for the development of Ghana as the President may determine.
Art. 211 talks about the establishing of an Armed Forces Council; Art. 212 talks about the appointments of the Chief of Defence Staff and Service Chiefs, appointment of other officers who shall be giving such command and granting of commissions to officers. All these shall be vested in the President; Art. 213, talks about the mandate of the Chief of Defence Staff; Art. 214, generally talks about the welfare and maintenance of the Ghana Armed Forces and Art. 215 talks about delegation of functions by the Armed Forces Council.
Now, going back to Art. 210 (3), the Constitution in Art. 57 (1) states clearly that… There shall be a President of the Republic of Ghana who shall be the Head of State and Head of Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ghana.
What does it mean to be Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces? In simple English,this means that the President can deploy the Ghana Armed Forces to undertake any mission for the defence of the territorial integrity of the country or for other purposes he deems fit. And in all this, he would have to first consult the Armed Forces Councilfor advice or accept its recommendation.
So, Col Festus Aboagye (Rtd), should not pretend that he does not know that, deploying soldiers to voters’ registration centers, polling stations during voting, escorting the Electoral Commissioner and lately guarding bullion vans, could be the decision of the president upon advice of the Armed Forces, to maintain law and order and stop any escalation of violence or acts of violence.
Many people are condemning the military invasion of Ashiaman, particularly because the soldiers attacked the innocent ones as well. I, for one will not want to blame the military, too much here, even as I think, their intelligence network should have been able to zoom in, into the criminals’ den and dealt with them appropriately. We all know that the military code of conduct demands discipline within the Armed Forces and all its members at all timesand this good behaviour and conduct, extend beyond camp and barracks into town and among civilians.
This is one important mandate of the Ghana Armed Forces and it is by this discipline conduct that among the security services, the Armed Forces are the most respected, revered and feared.
Having said this, Col Festus Aboagye (Rtd), should be the first person to admit that sometimes the military oversteps their mandate and enter into civilian space and create havoc. Three of such instances were attacks on the police by the military, when all the police did was to carry out their mandate of instilling law and order in society.
On March 31, 2000, while the police in Osu police station were investigation an accident case, two soldier, Fiatekpe and Deku, from 48 Engineer Regiment walked in, with one claiming he was the caretaker of the taxi involved in the accident. Not satisfied with the police explanation that the case was under investigation, the two, got enraged and, in the process, brutally assaulted one Corporal Mary Damoah who sustained serious injuries. They were subsequently detained.
Not too long after, some fifteen or so soldiers in uniform invaded the police station and rained hell on everyone, beating up police and civilians alike.
Then on Sunday December 18, 2021, one Kofi Frimpong, a UK based Ghanaian who was said to be serving in the British army was arrested in Takoradi for dangerous driving. Some military personnel invaded the Kwesimintsim Police Station and vandalised the place in attempts to release their colleague.
And on Friday October 29, 2021, a non-uniformed soldier, Staff Sergeant Jamal was riding an unlicensed motor in Suame, Kumasi and refused to stop when ordered to, by the police. He was arrested. This resulted in six military officers invading the police station and assaulted the police officer at post.
Could Col. Festus Aboagye (Rtd) want to tell us that the mandate of the Ghana Armed Forces states that all its personnel are above the law?
Why was he speaking like an NDC communicator by solely blaming this current civilian administration for acts that were never sanctioned by the President and the Armed Forces Council?
If anything at all, the military in Ghana has thrice invaded the mandate of civilians by overthrowing constitutional regimes. Is Col Festus Aboagye (Rtd), saying that some top political figures in the governments of Convention People’s Party (CPP), Progress Party (PP) and People’s National Party (PNP) sanctioned the coups? For if he can attempt to justify the current happenings i.e., deployment of soldiers at voters’ registration centers and polling stations, to a political authority within the corridors of power, then it means a political authority within government must have sanctioned the coups.
In the mid-seventies, Col Festus Aboagye (Rtd) was an officer in the 2nd Infantry Battalion in Takoradi. What did he do to prevent the June 4 coup which was not necessary because the country was preparing for return to civilian rule? In fact, why did he allow the December 31, 1981 coup, which toppled a civilian administration to take place?
All the coups truncated democracy. If February 24, 1966 coup had not taken place, Nkrumah’s gross economic mismanagement from 1961 after he removed K.A. Gbedemah from the finance ministry, would have caught up with him and a popular revolution by the people, as predicted by Gbedemah would have taken place. This take-over would have been by the people, with no bloodshed.
Busia’s government was toppled on January 13, 1971 by the military and democracy was set aside for eight years. Then December 31, 1981, the military struck back and worsen our economic situation for eleven years, after which the military dictator, Jerry Rawlings put on civilian wear to rule constitutionally for another eight years, dragging Ghana in the privilege international community of Highly Indebted Poor Countries.
What did Col Festus Aboagye do to make sure that the military never over stepped its mandate? And here he is trying to convince himself that killing of soldiers by civilians and invasion of civilians’ privacy by soldiers was the result of politicians.
And did we hear the retired colonel saying that the Western Togoland affair was all a hoax and a ploy by the government to deploy the military into the Volta region? I do not want to convince myself that Uncle Festus is on a political agenda to whip up support for a certain party.
In case he is refusing to remember, this Western Togoland matter started in 1956 when the Wedome section of Trans Volta Togoland felt cheated after the results of the Plebiscite did not go their way. They vowed to resist joining Ghana and just before, during and after March 6, 1957 a section of the people there, started acts of terrorism. And if in these times an old man who was a young man in 1956, could gather people to form a group and declare independence, a seasoned security expert is saying this is a hoax.
In conclusion, I want to state my view on this matter. The military are there to protect us and so it will be wrong to start killing them, even as it is wrong to kill anybody. Civilians must know that the Abantu Convention, unofficially and traditionally instilled in military personnel will not allow civilians who kill members of the Armed Forces to go scot free. We are lucky the military did not strike and attack Dunkwa Obuasi when Major Mahama was killed, there.
Also in that vein, the military must maintain that spirit of discipline which makes them stand out when dealing with civilians.
As for people like Col Festus Aboagye (Rtd), I will plead that they use their expertise to bring out very good suggestions that will achieve good results for society, as a whole and stop being unnecessarily partisan.
Hon. Daniel Dugan
