Lock-down: Don’t violate rights of the citizens – AMNESTY Boss tells Security agencies

Country Director for Amnesty International, Robert Akoto Amoafo is appealing to managers of the security agencies to rebrief their personnel on how to deal with civilians during the partial lockdown in parts of the country.

In an interview monitored by MyNewsGh, Mr. Akoto Amoafo said human rights still stand in this period and that the rights of individuals must not be trampled upon.

His comments follow pockets of alleged abuse of civilians by security personnel who are enforcing the 14 days lockdown period in specific areas announced by the President last Friday, March 27, 2020, as parts of measures in containing the spread of Coronavirus.

“You have to protect and guide the people not to brutalize them you can even follow them to see if indeed their excuse is true”, he told Citizen Kofi Owusu on Ahotor FM.

”We are not in any way saying the police cannot sanction people but we are saying that the right sanctions need to be applied and the right process needs to be held. This is a clear indication for them to put stringent measures against security forces causing any sort of violence against citizens, it’s important that they ensure that they rebrief their people and make it clear to them that human right still stands and we need to obey and respect the rights of every individual and make sure we do not go beyond what is expected’’, he added.

He further indicated that: ”I have come across a lot of video and pictures drawing the attention of the abuse inflicted on Ghanaians across the country. One of the videos entailed a gentleman who was in a shop at Kumasi who was allegedly beaten by the police because he has opened a shop that was a provision shop, even the narration said he was selling bread to someone when the police got to the shop and canned the gentleman.’’

Meanwhile, Accra, Tema, Kasoa, and Kumasi are into the second day of the partial lockdown as parts of efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Source: ghanaweb.com