For once, punish your officers – GJA tells Police over assault of 3 journos by 10 cops

The Ghana Journalists Association has condemned what it termed as “barabaric” assault on three journalists of the Ghanaian Times newspaper by 10 police officers at Kinbu in Accra Thursday morning.

GJA is demanding the Police Service to not only immediately investigate the matter but “for once, punish the perpetrators of such heinous crime”.

Two of the three journalists, Mrs Raissa Sambou Ebu who recently gave birth through a caesarean, is on admission at the Greater Accra Regional hospital responding to treatment, while Malik Sullemana was however treated and discharged from the Cocoa Clinic.

An unnamed policeman riding an unregistered motorbike was said to have jumped red light at the Kinbu Traffic Light and hit an official vehicle of the Ghanaian Times which was transporting journalists on assignment.

The said officer allegedly refused to stop to check the damage caused the vehicle despite several signals.

The driver of the Ghanaian Times vehicle then chased and managed to block the motorbike of the police officer a few metres away from the accident scene.

One of the journalists on board the Nissan salon car, Mali Sulemana, got off the and started filming the incident using with his mobile phone, but that did not go down well with the officer and attempted to snatch the mobile phone from the reporter.

He however failed in the bid, and angered by that, allegedly punched the face of the Sulemana, as blood gushed out from his nostril.

Other police officers and a soldier in uniform allegedly joined in the beating of the reporter, pushing, kicking, slapping and punching him.

Two other journalists on board the vehicle, Salifu Abdul-Rahaman and Raissa Sambou Ebu, were also heckled, and in the process, Raissa, a nursing mother, collapsed and was rushed to the Greater Accra Regional Hospital for treatment.

The police officer then demanded for the mobile phone of Sulemana, and subsequently handcuffed and bundled him into a police vehicle to the Ministries Police Station where he was detained for about four hours.

The police were said to have ignored several pleas from the reporter to send him to hospital for medical treatment.

He was later brought out and asked to write his statement but he insisted on doing so only when his lawyer is present, something that did not go down well with the police officers who were alleged to have asked suspects in the cells to beat him up as he was taken back.