The all too famous ‘Double’ mentioned repeatedly by Sam George during his accounts before the Ayawaso West Wuogon Commission of Enquiry has finally appeared before the Commission.

Incapable of speaking English, but fluent in twi, a native language, ‘Double’ known in real life as Bright Ernest Akomea recounted his life changing experience which saw him move from a phone seller, an NPP polling station executive to a national security operative in 2017.

With little training in crowd control and weapon handling, Double was part of the national security special forces who invaded the Ayawaso West constituency ostensibly to foil an operation to disrupt the by-election on January 31, 2019.

The invasion turned violent with guns fired. Scores were injured, MP for Prampram slapped and assaulted which has occasioned a three-member Commission of Enquiry set up to investigate the cause of violence and make recommendations.

Mysterious key

One of the key witnesses before the Emile Short Commission was Sam George who gave a chilling and dramatic account of how he run for cover when guns were fired at him and how he followed ‘Double’ for a mysterious car key which he did not find. That key he said was the cause of a standoff between the men from the national security and supporters of the NDC parliamentary candidate.

He accused Double of being a member of the NPP vigilante group who had been enlisted into the national security apparatus.

He also claimed to have seen Double firing at the residence of the NDC parliamentary candidate Delali Brempong.

When Double appeared before the Commission he denied ever being a member of the NPP vigilante group.

He also denied firing any shot at all during the two to three hour operation even though he admitted taking the gun of a police officer who drove them to the scene of the operation.

Mobile Phone dealer

Explaining how he got into the national security, he told the Commission through an interpreter that he sold mobile phones at Circle but in 2017 he heard of an opening at National Security and decided to put in an application.

He was interviewed, vetted and trained for some few weeks at Asutuare and has since been operating in the National Security.

Even though he was stationed at the Kotoka International Airport, he said he was informed of the Ayawaso Wuogon operation on the night of January 30, the night before the by election.

He said on reaching the area, they saw about 15 motorbikes leading a convoy of three vehicles occupied by Sam George, former mayor Alfred Vanderpuije and another lady.

He explained they had heard gun shots in the area and wanted to search through the vehicles to see if there were guns, something Sam George would not allow.

That culminated into some misunderstanding, he said.

Dragons and Rashids

The National Security operative told the Commission he recognized some of the persons acting as NDC security during the by election.

He identified some of them as Dragon, Rashid Seidu, Mohammed Tanko, Mala and Theophilus.

When he was asked how he got to know them, he stated that some of them were part of the NDC vigilante group, the hawks while others provided security for the NDC in the 2016 elections.

While he admitted knowing of Delta Forces and Invisible Forces as vigilante groups belonging to the NPP he vehemently denied being part of any of them but said he used to be the NPP polling station executive at the Adentan constituency.