The Director of Operations at the National Security Secretariat, Colonel Michael Kwadwo Opoku, has disputed a video which captured scenes of violence at the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election on 31 January 2019.

After watching the video of the scenes as captured on camera when he appeared before the Commission of Inquiry led by Justice Emile Short on Wednesday, 20 February 2019, Colonel Opoku concluded that the tape has been doctored.

He told the Commission: “I've seen it but not in this sequence. The previous ones I watched, we can watch it again. The Immigration officer was moving when I think, Hon. Sam George was slapped but, in this situation, the reporter said a different thing altogether”.

In his opinion, the video available to the Commission “is a well-doctored video”.

Colonel Opoku reiterated that: “If anybody can get the first-day video, you'll see that this one is a doctored video”.

He further cautioned the media against false reports and creating impressions that do not reflect the true representation of events.

“This video, I don’t think is the true reflection of whatever happened and this is what our pressmen must be very cautious in doing because the first footage I saw from the office at Abelemkpe, reported that two people had died”.

A group of masked national security operatives fired gunshots and wounded some 16 supporters of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) at La-Bawaleshi near the private residence of Mr Kwesi Delali Brempong, the NDC candidate at La-Bawaleshie, barely an hour into the by-election.

Member of Parliament (MP) for Ningo-Prampram, Mr Sam George was slapped by a security operative during the melee.

Colonel Opoku admitted that the masked men were National Security operatives and revealed that the person who slapped the MP has been asked to “stand down” as the security hierarchy looks into the matter.