President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Albert Kwabena Dwumfour has called on the Interior Minister, Mr Ambrose Dery, to act swiftly on matters relating to the attacks on Upper West Regional Chairman of GJA, Sualah Abdul Wahab by senior immigration officers.
“We expect him to act swiftly just as he did in his reaction to the IGP’s leaked tape,” the GJA President stated.
He made the call at a press conference held on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, following the rampant attacks on journalists.
Amongst others, Mr Dwumfour complained about how an Immigration Officer pointed a gun at the Upper West Regional Chairman of GJA, Sualah Abdul-wahab, and threatened to shoot him on June 20, 2023, without any provocation.
The GJA President explained that Sualah, who is also the Upper East Regional Correspondent of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, was traveling from Wa to Bolgatanga on public transport to attend a workshop on climate change.
The vehicle stopped at the Immigration checkpoint at Naro in the Nadowli-Kaleo District for a routine check of the Ghana Card of all passengers.
The passengers, including Sualah, disembarked from the vehicle.
He then requested to use a kettle (“buta”) belonging to the Immigration Officers to perform Ablution in a make-shift roofing-sheet structure believed to be a urinal.
But the Immigration officers declined his request so he returned the kettle (buta) and decided to go into the bush to urinate.
He continued that on his way, one of the officers instructed Sualah to cross to the other side of the road to urinate.
Sualah did not find any justification in risking his life to cross a highway just to urinate when it was safe to do so in the bush on the side of the road where he was.
The Immigration Officer, out of anger, shouted: “I am asking you to cross the road to urinate and you are challenging me”.
He then cocked his gun and threatened: “If you are a man, go and urinate”. Sualah, together with the other passengers, quickly moved away from the scene, and further into the bush to urinate.
Mr Dwumfour said when Sualah returned, the Immigration Officer again threatened to “blow off” his head for challenging him. In the course of the events, another Immigration Officers with name tag, Anim Agyepong, who was wearing the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Immigration (ASI), and believed to be the seniormost officer among them, suddenly rushed over and threatened to arrest and lock up Sualah.
Subsequently, he rushed into his office and returned with a side arm (pistol) threatening to shoot the journalist for being “too knowing” amidst insults.
He later put the pistol on a chair and wanted to attack Sualah physically but was restrained by some passengers and his colleagues.
When calm was restored, one of the Immigration Officers asked Sualah to go and apologize to the senior Immigration Officer.
But the passengers disagreed, contending that they (passengers) were rather the victims of abuse from the officers.
When the immigration Officers realized that all the passengers were resolved not to offer any apology, they refused to open the barrier and unduly delayed the vehicle for some time as punishment before allowing them to pass.
That, the GJA President said, certainly requires urgent investigation and appropriate sanctions where necessary.
Mr Dwumfour said, “We see the men in uniform as partners in development in ensuring that governance and rule of law are upheld. They must be seen to be protecting Journalists rather than attacking them. As enforcers of the law, they must know better.”
He continued, “Therefore, we take their actions against journalists as a deliberate attempt to gag journalists.”
According to Mr Dwumfour, the GJA finds the conduct of the Immigration Officers to be highly unprofessional and gross misconduct, which warrants severe sanctions.
Meanwhile, as part of its action plans, he said the GJA has already petitioned the Controller General of Ghana Immigration Service, Lawyer Takyi Assuah, and copied the Interior Minister to investigate the incident and sanction the officers involved where necessary to serve as a deterrent to others.
Another issue the GJA President touched on was that of the Ashanti Regional Correspondent of GTV, Nicholas Osei-Owusu, who was attacked by some soldiers while covering some miners who were trapped in a mining pit at Obuasi in the Ashanti Region a few weeks ago.
He said the only offence the reporter committed was videoing a warning-shooting spree being carried out by the soldiers to disperse a mob on the premises of the Obuasi Central Police Station.
Mr Dwumfour said Nicholas explained that he ordered some of his men to confiscate his official working gadgets and asked them to delete the videos as well.
When he was not so sure of what they had done to retrieve the content from the phone used to capture the unfolding events, the military man personally seized it, went through it and deleted every video the Journalists had taken.
To be certain that no traces of the deleted videos were left, he went into the ‘recycle bin’ on the phone and deleted everything there before handing the gadget back to him.
“Sincerely, there was no act of provocation/resistance from the Journalists as we have been told and as established by our investigations.The military man would not even tolerate the identity of the journalist as coming from the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and went further to make some scornful comment that he is coming from GBC and so what’ before snatching the phone,” Mr Dwumfour added.
The GJA President was afraid these acts, by the military against a journalist who was carrying his constitutionally mandated duty, can pass for terrorism against the Journalist and journalism in this country.
He stated that the GJA has petitioned the military hierarchy and is waiting for an urgent response.
“Our demands include, investigating the matter thoroughly and sanctioning the culprits appropriately. Ladies and gentlemen of the media, a few weeks ago in Ashaiman, Angel Fm’s Tema Regional Correspondent, Augustine Ahiabor was assaulted with his phone smashed by Residents of Ashaiman Lebanon Zone 2, just for taking a picture of a toilet facility in a compound that had collapsed on people,” he said.
He added,”The matter is currently in court so we are keenly monitoring the outcome. Ladies and gentlemen of the media, the violations that have been recorded in Ghana over the past year, in our view, give course for pessimism regarding the country’s performance in the next ranking of global media freedom. It is obvious that our press freedom environment is deteriorating seriously and it is our view therefore that efforts to bring a positive change should begin from authorities, in sanctioning people who commit atrocities against Journalists and media practitioners.”
