The government has finally paid compensation to the victims of the widely condemned Ejura shooting incident in the Ashanti Region that led to the death of two people and the injury of four others.
The Ministry of Interior presented cheques for the payments on Wednesday, February 15, 2023.
Oliver Barker-Vormawor, the convenor of the #FixTheCountry movement that provided lawyers to fight for the compensation on behalf of the affected families shared copies of the cheques on his Facebook page.
“The compensations were worked out by the Attorney-General on the basis of the legal claims made on behalf of the Victims by the lawyers provided by #FixTheCountry.
FixTheCountry is grateful to its legal team as well as the representatives of the Joint Committee of the victims who have worked with FixTheCountry all the way to ensure that the victims are duly compensated,” he wrote to caption the cheques.
It would be recalled that on June 26, 2021, Ibrahim Mohammed Anyass, alias Macho Kaaka, a citizen journalist said to be a #FixTheCountry activist, was attacked by unknown assailants at Ejura.
He later died at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, two days later.
On the day of his funeral, the youth of the community protested to register their displeasure about the death of the man they considered to be fighting for the community’s interest.
Military personnel who were deployed by the Ashanti Regional Minister to the scene fired live bullets into the armless protesting crowd, killing Abdul Nasir Yussif and Murtala Mohammed and injuring others.
A fact-finding committee was set up to investigate the incident and it recommended in its report that the victims be compensated.
Although Barker-Vormawor is excited about the compensation payments despite their lateness in coming, he maintains that the security officers and others who are complicit in the incident must be prosecuted.
“The Joint Committee and FixTheCountry will like to use this opportunity to reiterate the demands of the victims for wholistic justice. They remain resolute in their demands for the officers involved to be prosecuted and for proper accountability to be taken by duty bearers with regard to the circumstances that led to the Ejura shootings and killings,” he added.
So far, no there is no record of any punitive action having been taken against the people who had a hand in the fatal incident.
Source: ANDREAS KAMASAH