Presidential Guards lash Oman FM Journalist

Source: Daily Guide Ghana  -  Michael Creg Afful, a senior reporter with Oman Fm, was on Monday reportedly molested by two military guards from the Flagstaff House in the full glare of Ibrahim Mahama, brother of President John Dramani Mahama, at Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region.

The journalist had gone to Ashaiman where a dual carriage road was being constructed by Engineers and Planners (E&P), a construction firm owned by Ibrahim Mahama, when he was hounded by the military men who seized his cell phone before he was given some strokes of the cane.

He claimed he received some hefty slaps on his chins for filming the road and Ibrahim.

He was issued a police medical report form to attend hospital at the Ashaiman Poly-clinic after he had made a formal complaint to the Ashaiman District police.

It is alleged that the military officers carried out the assault on the orders of the president’s brother, who was said to have scrolled through the pictures on the mobile phone before returning it to the military officers – with the ranks of corporal and private – who were said to have been detailed to the Ashaiman road from the presidency.

The incident took place around the workshop of E&P at about 9:45 am, near the former Ashaiman main lorry terminal when the president’s brother visited the construction site ahead of an inspection tour of the area scheduled for Wednesday.

When DAILY GUIDE got to the area, military personnel and a well-built civilian were seen seizing bicycles and motorcycles from riders who were plying the newly asphalted road.

Some of the commercial motorcyclists were also not spared the molestation as they received their share of the lashes.

Narrating the incident, Michael Afful told DAILY GUIDE that when he got to the site he saw some Chinese working there, adding that he took out his phone to take photographs of the construction work which was in progress.

He continued that he was approached by a soldier who asked him of his mission and why he was filming the workers and Ibrahim.

Before he could answer the questions, one of the military men had collected his phone and sent it to Ibrahim who witnessed the incident.

The presidential guard, he recalled, after scrolling the content of the phone to ensure that all pictures of Ibrahim were deleted, went to the video section and saw Kennedy Agyapong weeping on Adom TV over last week’s murder of the Upper East Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mahama Adams, the military man became offended and started screaming that he (journalist) was aligned to the opposition party.

Afful intimated that the military man started slapping him there and then, whiles the other used a cane he was wielding to lash him severally.

When the situation was getting more serious, Afful said he quickly took to his heels and went to report the incident.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Hebert Sosu, Crime Officer of the Ashaiman District Police Headquarters, told DAILY GUIDE that investigations had commenced into the case, and that the military personnel had confirmed seizing the cell phone of the journalist.