The Commander-in Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has ordered the interdiction of an official of the Bureau of National Communications of the National Security Council Secretariat following reported attack on a soldier.
A statement issued by the Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, expressed the President’s disappointment at the incident.
The National Security officer, Gerard Nana Osei-Tutu, he said, is interdicted with immediate effect for a full investigation to commence into the incident.
The Military, he said, constitutes a key player in the country’s security architecture and therefore any infringement on the institution and its officers will not be tolerated.
The soldier, Warrant Officer Class One (WO1) Mashud Salia, was reportedly humiliated by the national security officers and physically assaulted and handcuffed while in uniform over his inability to give way to a convoy of four vehicles.
The incident, which reportedly occurred on the Tema-Akosombo highway at the Ashaiman Tulaku section, attracted a large crowd of commuters and motorists alike, who watched as the soldier was receiving slaps from the armed persons.
Reports indicate that on Wednesday, November 25, 2020, at about 8:30am when traffic was heavy on the stretch, the soldier was driving his salon car towards Michel Camp.
Upon negotiating from the Ashaiman roundabout, a convoy of four high speeding V8 vehicles with siren blaring approached from his rear, forcing their way through the middle of the tight traffic.
The WO reportedly attempted parking off the road to give way to the convoy, but the road was so narrow that his very life and that of other motorists was at stake, so he continued in the lane.
The lead vehicle in the convoy is reported to have suddenly blocked the soldier, and armed men alighted from the other vehicles and allegedly started to slap him behind the steering wheel and after pulling him out
The men, reportedly wearing brown khakis and armed, handcuffed the Warrant Officer and shoved him into one of their vehicles, and drove off to Michel Camp.