Though the police, as an institution, has always painted the picture that it is media friendly, and also sees the latter as a partner in the fight against crime, as well as educating and informing the public, in reality, this does not exist.
Under the pretext of ensuring social distancing, The Chronicle and some three media houses were giving the marching orders from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) headquarters yesterday, when the reporters went there to cover a press conference being organised to throw more light on the recent arrest of two fetish priests, who have been accused of murdering an ex-soldier and other clients.
The Editor of the paper, Mr Emmanuel Akli, had picked up a signal that the police were going to organise a press conference to inform the public about the arrest of the two fetish priests at Adeiso in the Eastern Region, who had murdered their victims, allegedly for ritual purposes.
The Chronicle, being one of the media houses that had carried the story earlier, delegated this reporter to cover the press conference and report on it.
The CID apparently thought The Chronicle had taken the wind out of their sails, and, therefore, decided to descend heavily on its correspondent.
The personnel executed the plan to perfection, by first accusing the personnel of media houses of gate-crashing the programme, and used that as the basis to sack them like animals from the premises of the CID headquarters.
Though the Public Relations Officer (PRO) at CID headquarters, DSP Juliana Obeng, was seen around, she never intervened when the reporters were giving the marching orders.
The CID officers, especially the Second-in-Command (2IC), who this reporter could only identify only as being called Nana, was not only ruthless in his action, but actually ensured that the reporters left the premises. Ironically, The Chronicle found out later that one of the media houses was called back to sit in the programme.
The Chronicle was one of the papers that broke the story – that the police had exhumed three headless bodies at a fetish priest’s shrine at Adeiso in the Eastern Region. The Chronicle captured its story as “Police raid money doubling shrine”, which basically was to credit and project their hard earned image for the good work done, but in return for the praises, was a ‘hyena’ attack.
The paper gave a detailed report about the arrest of the two suspects – Christian Lawoe Gameli aka Power 1, owner of the shrine, and Famous Adulonu, spiritual trainee – for the role they played in the execution of the crime.
But this report apparently angered the police, who decided to pay back the paper with the marching orders.
The post GO AWAY, CHRONICLE IS NOT INVITED! …Police sack reporter over money doubling saga appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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