The Ghana Police Service has dismissed assertions that some of its personnel are trigger happy who use of live bullets without any possible threats to life.
“No, I wouldn’t say that some of our colleagues are becoming trigger happy,” said the Director of Police Public Affairs, Superintendent Cephas Arthur.
[contextly_sidebar id=”WyGtxRTi81HPW8irDF6eGacmDYESd076″]This follows the death of a student of the St Paul’s Senior High School at Denu in Volta Region over the weekend after the students rioted over alleged sodomy by two of their colleagues.
The Police who were called to maintain law and order allegedly shot one of the students, 17-year-old Adio Rahkib, Yushau Turawah in the head, killing him instantly.
His autopsy report indicated that he was hit by “a high velocity gunshot.”
The incident has led to the closure of the school while investigations into the matter are ongoing.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, Superintendent Arthur said the Police administration is probing the incident to determine the reason for the use of the live bullet to disperse the rioting students.
“We are looking for the reason why there should be a fire arm discharge, we are looking for why fire arms were carried to such an occasion, we are looking to establish the appropriateness or otherwise of discharging fire arms at such a place,” he said.
According to him, the ongoing probe is to “enable us punish where it is deserving and also put measures in place to protect any recurrence.”
He explained that per the Police’s rules of engagement, the riot at the school did not warrant the use of live bullets to keep the situation under control.
Supt. Arthur added that the Police hardly resort to the use of live ammunitions but “you only resort to that only when your life and that of other people are in immediate danger and for which situation if you don’t resort to the live bullet, you may lose yours and other people that you are mandated to protect may also lose theirs. But we hardly get to that level.
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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