The Member of Parliament for Walewale, Mahama Tiah Abdul-Kabiru, has condemned what he described as an unprovoked assault by military personnel on a journalist and several civilians in Walewale, calling for an immediate investigation and accountability.
In a statement issued on January 27, the Walewale MP said military personnel travelling in an armoured vehicle and a truck from Bolgatanga en route to Tamale stopped in the township around 1:00 pm on Monday, January 26, 2026, and allegedly attacked residents without justification.
“It has come to my attention that military men in an armored vehicle and a truck from Bolgatanga enroute to Tamale stopped in the Walewale Township around 1:00 pm on Monday, 26th January 2026, and without provocation, assaulted the Northeast Regional Correspondent of Media General and scores of other innocent civilians.”
He further alleged that the soldiers destroyed private property during the incident.
“They also destroyed properties on the spot, including motorbikes and commercial vehicles belonging to the people. Consequently, the town has been left in unwarranted apprehension.”
According to the MP, the assaulted journalist, Solomon Kwame Kankuli of Media General, was detained for more than four hours after the attack, and evidence documenting the injuries he sustained was destroyed.
He said checks he conducted suggested that local security authorities were unaware of the operation.
“My checks at the District Police Command and the military stationed in Walewale suggest that they were neither informed nor engaged by these marauding military men of this dastardly act.”
Mahama Tiah Abdul-Kabiru noted that the incident was not an isolated one, recalling previous assaults in the area.
“This is not the first time such atrocities have been visited on innocent civilians in Walewale and its environs without any cause. You will recall that this same journalist, with 2 other journalists and several innocent civilians were assaulted in February 2025. Some of these episodes have left some innocent civilians maimed without any compensation.”
He described the growing pattern of military conduct in the area as troubling and dangerous.
“It is troubling and near-rampant development that the military is now turning Walewale and its environs into a jungle where they unleash their unrefined atrocities on innocent civilians without remorse, conscience, or regard for professionalism. This is unbecoming of a group tasked with keeping law and order. Instead of maintaining order, these men are causing disorder.”
The MP rejected claims that recent bus attacks justified the military action, describing such explanations as misleading.
He said despite public dissatisfaction over the handling of the Bawku conflict and the lack of security escorts for travellers to Bawku, residents had remained peaceful and law-abiding.
In his strongest condemnation, the legislator warned of the potential consequences if such conduct is left unchecked.
“I therefore roundly condemn this barbaric, unprofessional, and infantile show of brute force by these men in uniform on innocent civilians without any provocation whatsoever. This culture of military brutality, which has become the order of the day, is a dangerous degenerative development when left unchecked by the Military Command, and could lead to military-civilian confrontation and its attendant consequences.”
He called on the Acting Minister of Defence to take immediate action.
“I call on the Acting Minister of Defense to investigate and bring the perpetrators of these acts to justice. The wholesale abuse of the people and the general application of force to all civilians is unacceptable and must be checked.”
