The Executive Secretary to the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election commission, Dr Ernest Kofi Abotsi, has disclosed that the Inspector General of Police, David Asante Apeatu, will take his turn on the hot seat this week to answer to questions to aid the commission to unravel circumstances leading to the injury of some 18 Ghanaians on January 31, 2019, during the by-election.
The Collation of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) and the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) will also have their representatives appearing before the commission.
He said “the IGP, CDD and CODEO will appear before the commission to give testimony based on the evidence they have” for the commission to work assiduously to meet the deadline given by the president.
He made the announcement when the Ayawaso West Wuogon Commission of Inquiry inspected scenes of the violence that broke out at La-Bawaleshie on January 31 during the parliamentary by-election.
The fact-finding exercise was to apprise and furnish the commission with corroborative evidence or otherwise relative to the testimonies given before it.
Dr Abotsi said the essence of the exercise was basically for them to just have a locus inspection, to see things for themselves. "I think the commission has seen things that a thousand words can't relay," he said.
"The commission has had first-time opportunity to inspect bullet holes, to inspect angles of penetration, to speak to people on the ground, to inspect potential dangers that could have occurred if it wasn't for the intervention of God," he added.
Dr Abotsi said by reason of this, the commission had had an opportunity to inspect for itself the things that it heard. "And, therefore, we can now relate to the things that we heard in sitting to the things that we inspected in practice and be able to come with the outcome that best supports the fact."
He said this is because, ultimately, this was a fact-finding mission and one couldn't conduct a fact-finding mission without actually visiting the locus.
"Today's work is the concretization of the past hearings. The commission hopes to meet the deadline that has been set by the President," he said.
Dr Abotsi said as the commission prepares to bring its work to a close, it was going to be able to synthesize the fact, which it had seen at the scene of the violence, together with the oral evidence that had been left before it by various witnesses.
"In the end, the commission recommendations and the findings it will come out with must support the fact, because this is the fact-finding mission," he stated.
He indicated that meeting the President’s timeline is crucial to their work, hence only those with “relevant” evidence to assist the commission will be approved to appear before it.
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