The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mark Wayongo says the stripping of some suspects naked publicly in Bawku is more acceptable than killing innocent citizens which those suspects were believed to be bent on doing.

“The people who were alleged to have been put through that treatment were going to shoot at people who had gone to harvest their potatoes and I think that that treatment was better than if they had killed those people,” he said.

Video footage from the volatile town depicts soldiers drilling two young men suspected to have engaged in unprovoked shooting in the Natinga area in Bawku, exacerbating the tension there. They were paraded naked in the streets and in some scenes the muzzle of a gun can be seen being pushed into the mouth of one of them.

The video together with earlier reports of the incident – denied by the military high command in Bawku – has caused some public outrage.

But Mr Wayongo, while regretting the conduct of the soldiers, believes the complaints are unjustified, given that the people of Bawku live under abnormal circumstances and conditions.

Conflict situation justifies maltreatment?

“If a soldier maltreats somebody in Accra, fine, we will have all the reasons to make all the noise but Bawku is a conflict area and they are trying to find ways of solving the problem… I think that some of these things are done to serve as a deterrent so that others will not repeat the same thing,” he told Peace FM’s Kwami Sefa-Kayi.

The regional minister who himself was caught in a cross-fire in Bawku recently and had to fall flat on his belly to dodge bullets urged restraint, warning that over criticizing the soldiers could demoralize them.

“Let us not over-flog the issue, we don’t have to make the soldiers feel unwanted in Bawku, we don’t need to do things that will let them take a back seat. If the soldiers are disillusioned, if we discourage them operating in the area they will just fold their arms and sit down and we will have serious consequences.”

A protracted chieftaincy dispute between Kussasis and Mamprusis has retained Bawku as one of the most volatile parts of the country.

The conflict has defied efforts by successive governments to find a solution to the intermittent resurgence in violence which has claimed lives and property and also exacted a heavy toll on both the locals and people responsible for maintaining the peace.

The security personnel themselves have on some occasions been accused of taking sides with politicians accusing each other of fanning the conflict for purposes of political expediency.

Source: MyJoyOnline

Tags: bawku conflict, minister wayongo, upper east region