Sam George’s insult attracted the assault – SWAT member apologises

A national security operative has apologised for slapping an opposition MP, Sam George in the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election gutted by violence.

The operative, Mohammed Sulemana, told the Justice Emile Short Commission investigating the violence, he has regretted his action on that fateful day on January 31, 2019.

‘I am guilty,” he spoke through an interpreter at the three-member Commission which meets at the Osu Castle in Accra.

Mohammed Sulemana was one of two persons seen in the viral video as the NDC MP cowed under heavy frame of the operative who has not been arrested or charged although he has been identified.

Explaining circumstances surrounding the assault, the SWAT team member accused the NDC MP of denigrating his ethno-regional identity.

The MP, he said after noticing his tribal marks, demanded with vehemence “you Northerner what are you doing here?” before proceeding to use the F word.

The assault resulted from the insult, he explained, and said he did not know his alleged abuser as a Member of Parliament.

He said the MP’s behaviour was not benefitting of an MP as exchanges got heated.

The Emile Short Commission had previously heard the testimony of the leader of the SWAT team, DSP Samuel Azugu who said the words used by the MP was unprintable.

He begged for an in-camera hearing explaining if it was to be uttered at the televised hearing, it would undermine “national cohesion.”

DSP Azugu was asked to write down the words. After reading the alleged insult, the Commission refrained from asking the SWAT unit commander to repeat the alleged insult.

Sam George in his testimony flatly denied uttering the words attributed to him in DSP Azugu’s testimony.  “It makes me sick to suggest I said those words,” he told the Commission calling the claim a “fabrication.”

“I confronted the National Security operative known as Mohammed Sulley and asked him, if he was a national security officer or a party agent and it was at the point that he assaulted me. I asked him whether he is a police officer or a party agent. That was what I was seen telling the national security operative,” he explained.