Residents of Diaso, a town in Denkyira-Obuasi in the Central Region, where a military man was brutally lynched and burnt by a mob, have fled fearing reprisal from personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF).
About 35 armed military men and two officers were deployed Monday to the area to mount a search for residents said to have lynched Captain Maxwell Mahama.
Capt Mahama of the 5 Battalion of Infantry is said to have been lynched while he was on his early morning jogging Monday.
He was allegedly stoned and burnt by the youth of the area who mistook him for an armed robber.
A statement from the Ghana Armed Forces says a high-powered fact-finding team led by the Chief of Army Staff, Major General Obed Akwa, arrived in the town on Tuesday to ascertain the facts of the case.
There were initial reports that the troops deployed to the area may brutalise the residents in retaliation for the attack, however, the Spokesperson for the Ghana Armed Forces, Col. Aggrey Quarshie, has told Joy News that will not happen.
“We are not going to expect that they will go and be attacking the community, no…they are going there to protect the Chief of Army Staff,” he said.
“We will leave the security agencies that are responsible for investigating such things to do that and we hope that all the culprits will be picked up and brought to book. So we expect the community members to help us arrest all the culprits,” he adds.
However, shots of the area by Joy News’ Correspondent Ohemeng Tawiah on Tuesday show that residents have abandoned the town.
The troops had been going from door-to-door, waking up the few residents still hiding in their rooms in a bid get information that will bring the perpetrators to book.
Captain Mahama had been posted to the area about three weeks ago to relieve the Commander of the military personnel who were guarding a local mining company. The Platoon Commander had come to Accra to sit for an examination.
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