Manso Nkwanta Killings: Review Arrest, Rapid Response Procedures

The Bureau of Public Safety says it is alarmed at the killing of seven persons suspected to be armed robbers at Manso Nkwanta in the Ashanti Region, Tuesday.

While such incidents are becoming too frequent in our country’s policing efforts, Bureau of Public Safety says it has become even more urgent for Government to heed earlier calls to set up an independent police complaint body to investigate such matters rather than leaving matters in the hands of the police to investigate itself.

The Ashanti Regional Minister says the Regional Security Council (RESEC) will consider having a neutral body to investigate the shooting to death of seven residents of Asawase Zongo.

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Simon Osei Mensah explained that this will serve all parties since the aggrieved Zongo youth have already indicated that they will not accept any investigation by the police service since they have an interest in the matter.

Their action follows the killing of seven alleged armed robbers by the police on Tuesday.

The victims, some of whom were governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) operatives, were said to have engaged the police in a shootout at Manso Nkwanta. “Between January and June this year the Bureau of Public Safety has captured a total of 122 police arrests. Only 52 of them were incident free,” the BPS noted in a statement, Thursday following the killings.

The statement observed as many as “70 of these arrests were classified as eventful arrests i.e. turned violent. From January to date such eventful arrests as captured by the Bureau of Public Safety resulted in 20 casualties (being 17 deaths and 3 injuries).”

Related: 'Police shoot-to-kill becoming unacceptable' – Muntaka calls for probe into killing of 7 men

“The Bureau finds this trend very disturbing and not characteristic of a progressive law enforcement institution,” it stated.

The BPS has therefore, suggested the Police Service should immediately “review its arrests/rapid response procedures, and train the entire service workforce on Critical De-Escalation skills.”

“We further call on the Vice President of the Republic, as the Chairman of the Police Council to immediately set up an ad hoc independent investigative body to thoroughly investigate the killings in Kumasi, and make their findings public.

“We are of the firm belief that a body independent of the Police is better placed to gain the confidence and cooperation of all persons affected by this situation,” the statement recommended.