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The High Court in Wenchi has ruled that the state must compensate six individuals with GH₵45,000 each for injuries sustained during the violent incident at the Techiman South collation centre in the 2020 general elections.
The shooting occurred following disturbances at the collation centre, just before Martin Adjei Mensah Korsah was declared the winner of the parliamentary seat. Security personnel, in an attempt to restore order, fired shots that tragically claimed the lives of two people and injured several others.
The injured parties filed a lawsuit, arguing that their right to life, as guaranteed by Article 13 of the 1992 Constitution and various international human rights statutes, had been violated.
In response, the Attorney General’s office acknowledged the shooting but claimed the security officers had only fired warning shots to disperse a crowd that, according to the state, was trying to disrupt the electoral process and pose a threat to the officials present. The state argued that the use of force was reasonable and justified, and also suggested that some of the injuries might have been caused by gunfire from within the crowd itself.
However, the court rejected the state’s arguments, finding sufficient evidence that the security officers had fired directly into the crowd in an indiscriminate manner. The court concluded that the actions of the security personnel were unjustifiable under the Constitution, as they violated the plaintiffs’ right to life.
The court also expressed concern that the shooting was not targeted at those allegedly causing the chaos and found no evidence to support the claim that gunfire from within the crowd contributed to the injuries.
While the plaintiffs initially sought higher compensation—GH₵5 million for the first applicant and GH₵2 million each for the other five—the court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to justify these amounts. Consequently, the judge ordered the state to pay GH₵45,000 to each of the six applicants as compensation.
