The Odum Plala Okyeame, Okyeame Adukwei on behalf of the residents of Obom-Domeabra has apologised to the military and the entire nation for brutalising two soldiers at Dome Faase earlier this week.
According to him, they mistook the soldiers for land guards hence the unwarranted attack on them.
“We thought they were land guards, but we have come to realise that they are soldiers and so we are very sorry. We are not justifying that landguards deserve to be brutalised but the President said he has stopped landguards from operating and i am not justifying our actions because every life matters. We really apologise,” he said.
Speaking on Atinka FM’s AM Drive, hosted by Ekourba Gyasi, Okyeame Adukwei admitted that the youth who attacked the soldiers had faulted, therefore calling on the military to forgive them.
However, he said they had complained about the mistreatment by those who were claiming the land, including destroying their farm produce on several occasions but they had no positive response from their authorities.
Soon after the clash between the soldiers and residents, about three hundred soldiers reportedly stormed Obom-Domeabra to retaliate and as well look for two missing guns.
It was reported that all the men in the town fled leaving their wives and children at home.
When the military got to the town, they went to each house to search for their guns and marched all the women to a park as a form of punishment.
The Deputy Defence Minister, Derrick Oduro made it known that the soldiers were sent there by their authorities, adding that the military will deal with the people of Obom Domeabra for attacking the soldiers.
Meanwhile, reacting to the Defence Minister’s comments, Okyeame Adukwei said the military men in question had been stationed on the disputed land for a while, acting like landguards and therefore they did not believe those soldiers were sent by their authorities.
He, therefore, called on government to come out with the truth and intervene on their behalf, stating that they had occupied the land for so many years without knowing it belonged to some people of Akyem.
“They have hidden the truth on what really happened from the public. We are appealing to the President, if it is true that he sent them, then he should intervene because we have all gone to hide in the bush and we do not know where our children and wives are,” he said.
Okyeame Adukwei added, “The authorities should exclude the soldiers from this matter and bring in the police to help solve it peacefully. We are in an election year and we do not want chaos. We have been to the site several times and we saw land guards in army uniforms so we thought these two soldiers were land guards.”
He added that the people of Dome Faase intend to send the matter to court immediately after the press conference, adding that it was unfortunate the issue took a violent turn.
Source: Atinka Online
