The Ghana Armed Forces has warned that it will use the required force to repel violent attacks by troublemakers during the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.
Colonel Aggrey-Quarshie, the Director of the Public Affairs of the Armed Forces, told Citi News the military will intervene in maintaining law and order at trouble spots when they are invited by the Police Service.
“Before the military is called into any situation, then the situation is such that you don’t go there with that minimum force that the average police man on duty will apply, because before they will call the soldiers, it means that the people or the person is behaving in a way that he needs a force much higher than the policeman to be able to subdue him,” Colonel Aggrey-Quarshie said. He said the Armed Forces’ use of force must not be interpreted as overreacting or applying excess force.
“Most times, people especially journalists, tend to think that there are excesses [to our application of force], but if somebody is misbehaving, beating up everybody, is that the time you should go and beg him?”, he questioned.
“At that time, we don’t beg that person, you have to stop him, and how are you going to stop him, you have to apply the force that will be able to subdue the person,” he added.
‘5000 hotspots for violence ahead of polls’
The Ghana Police Service has revealed that, it has identified over 5000 hot spots in the forthcoming elections which must be managed to avoid violence.
Speaking at forum on peaceful elections organised by the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Center, the Director-General of the Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Prosper Kwami Agblorh, highlighted a number of triggers that could ignite tensions.
“The proliferation of illicit arms in the country, the existence of numerous land and chieftaincy disputes, the prevalence of terrorist activities in some neighboring countries of our regions all serve as triggers for violence and therefore pose real threats to the 2016 general elections,” he outlined.
‘Police train 165 officers to deal with election violence’
Meanwhile, 165 Police personnel from the ten regions of Ghana, have successfully completed a three-week intensive high risk course at the Pwalugu police training school ahead of the upcoming general elections.
The programme was designed to toughen and strengthen the personnel in combating terrorism attacks, armed robbery, land guards activities and election related violence before, during and after the general polls on December 7.
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