Assault on journalist: Azugu’s continued presence in national security insult to Short Commission - NDC

The main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has said by the “brutish assault of Mr Caleb Kudah of Citi FM and the harassment of his colleague, Ms Zoe Abu-Baidoo”, the Akufo-Addo government has “now demonstrated clearly that it does not believe in the rule of law nor common human decency, as the continued presence of Deputy Superintendent of Police Samuel Kojo Azugu in the National Security apparatus and the brutish conduct of Lt. Colonel Agyemang fly totally in the face of the solemn recommendations of the Emil Short Commission of Inquiry”.

The party made the observation in a statement signed by General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia to condemn the attack on the journalists who were arrested for secretly filming some abandoned state-acquired vehicles in a no-photography enclave while within the premises of the National Security Ministry.

Mr Kudah claimed he was pushed, slapped and kicked in the groin by the national security operatives while in detention.

In the NDC’s view, the allegations made against the security personnel are proof that President Nana Akufo-Addo does not subscribe to the tenets of democracy.

Read the NDC’s full statement below:

STATEMENT ON THE ATTACK BY NATIONAL SECURITY PERSONNEL AGAINST JOURNALISTS

The National Democratic Congress has noted with concern recent attacks on journalists from the Citi FM and the Ashanti Regional Coordinator by National Security personnel and vigilante elements in Kumasi.

Coming in the heels of the invasion of Parliament by the military during the election of the Speaker, these developments portend a dangerous erosion of the democracy that all our citizens have come to cherish since the inception of the 4th Republic in January 1993.

The genesis of these trends is not hard to identify. The needless invasion by state-sponsored vigilantes of the voting process during the Ayawaso by-election in January 2019, the virtual militarisation of the registration of voters process last year, and the unprecedented violence that accompanied the election proper last December, culminating in the untimely death of eight innocent Ghanaian citizens.

Many were our citizens who erroneously decided to remain quiet because they assumed that we, in the NDC, were making unnecessary political noises.

For those of our citizens who formed that opinion, their silence only served to encourage the Akufo-Addo government that Ghanaians are weak and do not care enough about our democracy.

The sycophantic elements in society who descended heavily on Sir Sam Jonah for speaking up on the sorry state of Ghana's democracy must be revising their notes by now.



In the brutish assault of Mr Caleb Kudah of Citi FM and the harassment of his colleague, Ms Zoe Abu-Baidoo, the Akufo-Addo government has now demonstrated clearly that it does not believe in the rule of law nor common human decency, as the continued presence of Deputy Superintendent of Police Samuel Kojo Azugu in the National Security apparatus and the brutish conduct of Lt. Colonel Agyemang fly totally in the face of the solemn recommendations of the Emil Short Commission of Inquiry.

And as if these events are not enough, elements of the much dreaded NPP vigilante group, the Delta Force actually raided the office of the Ashanti Regional Security Coordinator and handcuffed him, claiming that his tenure of office had come to an end.

It is this unprecedented attack on the people of Ghana and the apparent helplessness or connivance of the President and Commander in Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo that threatens the foundation of our democracy and the wellbeing of our fellow countrymen and women.

Accordingly, we condemn in the strongest possible terms this degradation of our democracy by the Akufo-Addo government. We condemn the continuous abuse of our rights protected by the Constitution by the marauding and wayward administration of President Akufo-Addo.

We have a right to live in safety and security as we go about our daily lives. We have a right to live and breathe under this regime even in the face of the challenging economic situation brought about by the unbelievable incompetence of the Akufo-Addo government.

We shall not sit idly by as President Akufo-Addo takes our citizens for granted, even as he has demonstrated utter cluelessness in attending to the welfare of Ghanaians.

We urge the President to sit up and do the work for which he was allegedly elected to do. He must do that work with full respect for our rights and welfare. We shall not sit unconcerned as the President lurches from one scandal to the other. Ghana and Ghanaians deserve far better.

LONG LIVE THE NDC

LONG LIVE GHANA

ISSUED IN ACCRA ON I6TH MAY, 2021

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(HON. JOHNSON ASIEDU-NKETIAH)

GENERAL SECRETARY