ACCRA, Ghana — A Ghana commission of inquiry has recommended charges against police in Africa's deadliest soccer disaster, a May 9 stampede in which 126 soccer fans were killed, the chairman said.
The panel recommended prosecution for alleged reckless use of firearms on the part of police, who fired tear gas into crowds at Accra's main stadium to try to quell unruly soccer fans, chairman Sam Okudzeto said.
The tear gas set off a panicked rush for the exits. In the stampede, 126 fans were smothered or crushed to death, and scores more were injured.
Policemen involved in the disaster should be punished as a warning to others in public service, Okudzeto said.
Okudzeto presented findings of the five-member panel to Ghana President John Agyekum Kufuor on Friday. The report has yet to be made public.
If Kufuor accepts the findings, charges will follow automatically against police, under the commission's mandate.
"Members of the commission are competent people and their judgment must be respected," said Ernest Poku, inspector general of police. He refused comment on the findings, other than to say Kufuor's decision "should be in the national interest."
Some police have objected to the government inquiry, saying police should have been allowed to handle the matter.
Appointed by Kufuor, the commission held 17 public hearings, heard 102 witnesses, and visited seven sites in Ghana and two stadiums in Great Britain.
In an interim report last month, the panel said lack of basic safety measures contributed to the death toll. The night of the disaster, investigators said, no ambulances were on standby at the crowded stadium, the stadium clinic was closed and there were no security guards at the exits.
The final report also recommended a tightening of police training and discipline, after commissioners came across a string of allegedly lax procedures in investigating the disaster, Okudzeto said.
They included improper records of police ammunition and falsified entries on officers' comings and goings at the stadium, he said.