Tema Regional GJA Condemns Attack On Michael Afful Of Oman FM
One cannot fathom that in a democratic dispensation where instant justice is abhorred soldiers who live on the tax payers sweat will continue to engage in barbaric attacks on journalists.
On the 25th of last month a reporter with Oman FM, Michael Afful was crossing the road under construction from the former Sena Radio building to the Kuffour Lorry Station in Ashaiman where he took a harmless shot of the road under construction with his mobile phone. This inoffensive act infuriated two callous soldiers and an engineer who pounced on him and beat him mercilessly.
The heartless men in uniform molested and hit the reporter’s head with truncheon leading to blood oozing out of his head. His head was swollen with bruises on his head and other parts of the body. His phone was also taken from him.
The case was reported to the Ashaiman Police and a medical form was issued to Michael where he went to the Ashaiman Polyclinic to receive treatment. The Police later visited the scene where the said soldiers reportedly admitted committing the crime.
It is very disheartening to learn that this cruel, uncivilized and inhumane treatment occurred in the full glare of the Brother of the President Ibrahim Mahama whose Company Engineers and Planners is undertaking the construction works on the road. One would not want to believe that he gave the orders for the attack.
In any case, the road under construction is not a private property but a public one. It is also unthinkable that in an era where Civil Society Organizations and State Institutions like Parliament through the Government Assurance Committee are urging citizens to help report on activities of Government, soldiers will by their actions engage in acts that tend to undermine probity, accountability and value for money in the execution of national projects.
The road in question has generated several public debates and also triggered demonstrations by citizens when it was left in a deplorable state for years and so if the road is being done and work is progressing on it, it is only appropriate to report on it.
This act of a reporter cannot be considered a crime for the soldiers to constitute a kangaroo court and sentence him right in the middle of the street to instant beatings.
The continuous attack on journalists by officers in uniform is a grave drawback to the democratic forward march of the country. The violence against Michael is an affront to media freedoms and the right of the individual guaranteed in the Constitution.
We hereby condemn the attack and entreat the Flagstaff House which allegedly deployed the soldiers to Ashaiman, the Ghana Police Service and the Ghana Armed Forces to bring the perpetrators of the atrocious act on the reporter to book. We demand justice and ask that the reporter’s mobile phone which is still in the possession of the soldiers is given to him and his medical bills paid.
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