One major characteristic of a ‘friend’ is the fact that such a person has the best interest at heart, but with the Ghana police, this is marred by the ‘bad eggs’ among them.
Journalists from GhanaWeb were harassed in the line of their professional duty by some armed police officers who were at the Trade Fair Center early this morning demolishing the premises of Universal Label and Packaging Service Limited.
According to the leader of the police, the journalists were not supposed to be at the site to report their ‘illegal’ demolition because they the police were operating under a supposed ‘instructions from above’.
When asked whether he can explain what exactly the armed police officers with bulldozers were doing at that ungodly hour, the police officer said he will not answer that particular question.
“Can you please leave...I am telling you that leave, that’s the condition and you are asking me questions,” the angry police officer told the Editor-in-Chief of GhanaWeb, Ismail Nii Akwei.
“This is a project site and also a restricted area, you were not supposed to be here,” he added.
“He should delete it...let me see what you have recorded...I saw you recorded something...don't tell me that,” the officer screamed at the GhanaWeb camerawoman.
At that moment a scuffle broke out between the journalists and the police officers who were struggling to see what had been captured on the camera.
Under the instruction of Mr Akwei, the camerawoman who was returning from an earlier assignment showed the officers the visuals she captured but the officers insisted that she was still hiding some visuals taken from the site on the camera.
“We’re not kids, don’t annoy anybody,” the police officer screamed again at the ‘poor’ camerawoman who showed them [police] her assignment visuals.
Whilst some of the officers claim the camerawoman was hiding the visuals of the demolition, Mr Akwei intervened and asked the police not to harass his camerawoman.
“If you want us to go, just speak to us…the police didn’t speak to us, he was just harassing us,” Mr Akwei said.
The police officers then threatened to damage the camera if the visuals captured were not deleted.
“Do you think we are fools….?” The police office asked. The Editor-in-Chief then rebutted: “We’re also not fools.”
The Police officer who thought the law momentarily gave him power then ordered his juniors to detain the Editor-in-Chief of GhanaWeb.
“Please detain this guy,” he ordered.
He again ordered the camerawoman to delete what she has captured else his men were to detain her too.
Listen to what happened below
Background
The team of journalists from GhanaWeb led by the Editor-in-Chief had gone to the Ghana Trade Fair center upon a hint that the armed police officers were demolishing the premises of Universal Label and Packaging Service Limited, a factory belonging to former journalist and businessman, Raymond Archer.
Upon reaching the place, a police officer decided to deny them entry because according to him they were acting under a higher instruction and no media personnel nor owners of Universal Label and Packaging Service Limited were allowed to enter the premises.
The officer decided to use his torch to 'blind' the vision of the journalists and insisted that in any attempt to film what is going on, he the officer will damage the camera.
Watch how it started
Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS