Fire Service officers beat up journalists, vandalize studio over fire ‘April Fool’ prank

Angry personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) on Monday vented their spleen on journalists of two local radio stations at Nkronza in the Bono East Region for pranking them about an accident, MyNewsGh.com reports.

In view of the deadly accident that occurred at Amoma Nkwanta weeks ago, the personnel on hearing there has been an accident attached seriousness to the announcements made on the two radio stations [Dero and Akyeaa FM] only to rush to the scene to realize they had been pranked.

Not taking kindly to such a joke, the about ten fire officers stormed the station seething in anger and subjected the over six journalists who were at the station at the time, to severe beatings injuring one of them in the process and destroying some broadcast equipment.

In the ensuing melee, the journalists were seen fleeing from the building as the enraged Fire Service Personnel pounced on them and pummeled them to serve as a deterrent to other journalists in the area who think they can prank them and get away with it.

Paul Yaw Asamoah alias Obaatan, one of the beaten journalists revealed that confirmed that studio microphones and other equipment were destroyed in the process.

Giving an account of his ordeal, he said “It was horrifying so I tried to rush out of the studios and wanted to go downstairs but they got hold of me and used their boots to beat me. I feel pains all over my body.”

Authorities of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) have not been available for comment.

This comes barely weeks after the Ghana Police Service, a sister security agency revealed it recorded 750,500 prank calls between midnight of January 1, 2019, and midday of March 27, 2019 alone .

According to the service, the prank calls came through the three Police Emergency Command Centres (PECCs).

Out of the 761,101 calls made to the three PEECs in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale, 751,217 were prank calls, while only 9,884 were genuine calls.