• National Security personnel had deleted the footage from Caleb and Zoe's phones when they detained the journalists
• While it is unclear how the video leaked, Manasseh suggests the National Security is to blame
Manasseh Azure Awuni, has questioned the basis of National Security releasing a ‘sensitive’ video filmed by one Caleb Kudah, a journalist with Citi FM to Asaase Radio, a pro-NPP radio station.
According to the Investigative Journalist, the National Security claimed the content of the video the journalist filmed at their premises was so sensitive that Caleb who captured the video was arrested. A colleague Kudah sent those videos to was also arrested and had the content of the ‘sensitive’ video deleted from their phones including other personal contents.
Manasseh Azure Awuni in a post on his Facebook timeline asked, “If the content of the filming was so sensitive that both Caleb and Zoe had to be arrested and the content deleted from their phones, why would part of it be leaked to Asaase Radio?”
Manasseh Azure Awuni in his post averred that, he spotted the lapses in Citi FM's approach to Caleb's arrest on Tuesday, May 11, “but that does not cast doubt on the account of Caleb. The fact that the story of his assault was not told immediately does not mean it didn't happen.”
He continued: “Apart from the assault, a number of basic details were also left out in Citi FM's initial report, which I called to draw someone's attention to get it fixed. I was compelled to write an article and publish it the following day when I still hadn't seen that from the station and it appeared as though Caleb had committed a crime. But that does not in any way suggest that the assault angle was an afterthought.
“Some of us have worked in establishments, and sometimes in order to keep employer-employee relationships, we allow certain things to slide. So, not every detail may make it to the public domain. But that should not in any way affect the account of Caleb. Any such grounds to discredit the young man is sinking sand.”
“I trust Caleb's account,” he noted.
Manasseh Azure Awuni, however, indicated that, instead of the public doubting the journalist’s account of torture at the National Security Secretariate, the public should rather doubt “those who deleted the evidence and leaked part of it to Asaase Radio.”
“Those who claimed that not even one vehicle was left there - which turned out to be false - are those we should doubt,” he stressed.
There are claims that some of the vehicles at the National Security Secretariat belong to the CEO of Menzgold, Nana Appiah Mensah, but Azure Awuni insists the vehicles have been at the premises of National Security since 2017.
“And I don't know when the supposed unregistered vehicles belonging to NAM 1 were seized, but some of the vehicles I see in the video leaked by Asaase Radio have been there since 2017 thereabout. There are also expensive and luxury Mercedes Benz vehicles that have been parked under the shed for years,” he stated.
Watch a discussion on the arrest of Caleb Kudah from the 12th minute of the video below
Manasseh Azure Awuni, Investigative Journalist