Bagbin: Our security agencies must be modernised

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin has said the security agencies in the country must be modernized to fit the current global trend.

He said the country will no longer tolerate any military brutalities against any civilian in the country adding that there will be no hiding place for any officer who engages in acts of lawlessness.

Bagbin said, “Security agencies must be modernised and this House [Parliament] this prepared to support government’s efforts to do so.”

“We will no longer entertain any brutalities to any civilian in this country. The law is there to be enforced …and I will further direct that the committee should go forward and take all the reports of commissions set up by governments to investigate all those cases and bring them to this House.”

Bagbin added, “We can’t continue this way. We are getting to the 2024 elections and if we don’t stamp out these things I’ll be having nightmares. Strong measures must be taken before 2024 or else I don’t know the outcome. We will no longer tolerate this…”

Probe military brutalities from 1993
Speaker Alban Bagbin also directed Parliament’s defence and interior committee to probe instances of military-civilian brutalities since 1993.

He gave the directive after the committee submitted its report on the brutalities meted out to some civilians in Wa in the Upper West Region last year.

Some Members of Parliament expressed reservations over some aspects of the report as not comprehensive enough.

The speaker also urged the committee to get in touch with professionals to find compensation for the victims of the Wa military brutalities.

On Thursday 1 July 2021, some soldiers were captured on video brutalising some residents of Wa in the Upper West Region.

The attack was allegedly triggered by the theft of a mobile phone belonging to one of the military officers.

Reports suggest the victims who are mostly commercial tricycle operators, motorists and pedestrians were whipped and made to roll on the bare floor with some forced into gutters nearby.

Several of them are said to have sustained injuries. Two of them are currently on admission at the Wa Municipal Hospital.