‘Walk the talk on your human rights credentials’ – Martin Kpebu dares Akufo-Addo
The Executive Director of the Human Rights and Governance Centre, Martin Kpebu, has charged President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to walk his talk on the issue of human rights.
According to him, a lot of journalists and other citizens are being brutalised under President Akufo-Addo’s tenure as President.
Mr. Kpebu chronicled events such as the hounding of Manasseh Azure Awuni and the recent military brutality on journalists at Tseaddo and others to back his claim.
He made the call in reaction to the assault of Citi News’ Caleb Kudah and the gestapo-style invasion of the premises of Citi FM/Citi TV in a bid to arrest another journalist, Zoe Abu-Baidoo Addo.
Mr. Kpebu also lamented the international embarrassment to the country’s press freedom credentials with the assault of Citi News’ Caleb Kudah by National Security operatives.
He explains the torture and the subsequent raid of the premises of Citi FM & Citi TV will see the country’s ranking on global press freedom ratings suffer a further dip.
Mr. Kpebu in a Citi News interview called for an end to the harmful activities of National Security operatives.
He thus asked President Akufo-Addo to bring his human right credentials to bare.
“Well, as far as it appears to me, we are going to lose points because it didn’t start with this incidence (Caleb Kudah’s assault). You remember Manasseh’s documentary that got him hounded out, and he had to flee and also the Ajafor matter and also the military brutalities on some journalist around Tseaddo and the likes.”
“So it doesn’t look good. So we plead with the President, I mean he has his fine record on paper in terms of human rights protection. So we plead with him to walk the talk and let us see it practically.”
About the raid and arrest of Caleb Kudah
Mr. Kudah was arrested at the National Security Ministry on Tuesday for filming abandoned MASLOC vehicles parked at the premises of the Ministry.
A team of heavily-armed SWAT police officers subsequently were dispatched to arrest Citi News‘ Zoe Abu-Baidoo Addo at the premises of Citi FM/Citi TV.
This is because Caleb had forwarded some of the footage he captured to Zoe via WhatsApp.
Caleb Kudah in an interview with Bernard Avle on The Point Of View on Citi TV indicated he was slapped several times by the security officers.
The Ministry of National Security on Thursday said it has begun investigations into the issue.
Meanwhile, pressure group OccupyGhana has said it doesn’t trust the National Security to conduct an objective probe into the issue, but rather suggests an independent body takes the charge.
Source: Citinewsroom
