Akufo-Addo should insist on Hajia Fati’s suspension – Jantuah

Vice Chairman of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee, Mr Kwame Jantuah is demanding that President Akufo-Addo orders the suspension of Hajia Fati, following her assault on a female journalist.

Hajia Fati although apologised to Ohemaa Sakyiwaa Awehenepa of Adom FM days after slapping the journalist who was undertaking her official duty at the NPP headquarters on May 4, 2018, many don’t see her apology remorseful enough.

The incident happened barely two days after the world marked Press Freedom Day in Ghana. President Akufo-Addo had touted the country’s democracy and the conducive environment Ghanaian journalists operate at the event.

Speaking on the theme “Keeping Power in Check: Media, Justice and the Rule of Law” on May 2, President Akufo-Addo remarked:

“I will say, again, that I much prefer the noisy, boisterous, sometimes scurrilous media of today to the monotonous, praise-singing, sycophantic one of yesteryear. The Ghanaian media has, in fact, enriched the nations’ governance by its curiosity, investigative skills, and persistence.”

Analyzing the assault by a vociferous woman well known in the president’s party on TV3’s NewDay Saturday, vis a vis the president’s speech, Mr. Kwame Jantuah recalled Nana Akufo-Addo ironically condemning the incarceration of a journalist in another country for merely taking pictures.

Holding the president to account based on the president’s stance on press freedom, Mr. Jantuah said the NPP’s apology on the assault “would have come from the highest executive of the NPP…” level.

President Akufo-Addo should have been the first to have indicated to Hajia Fati that her action was intolerable, he underscored.

“I would have thought that based on how President Akufo-Addo presented and highlighted Ghana with regards to the Press Freedom Day and the things he said, he would have been the first person to indicate to madam Fati that you are suspended or you would have seen him recommend to the chairman or the acting chairman of the NPP that she has to be suspended because of her action.”

Meanwhile, Hajia Fati has been granted a police enquiry bail after the Multimedia Group where the journalist who was assaulted works reported the issue to the police.