Chairman of the Defence Committee of Parliament and President Akufo-Addo’s nominee for the position of deputy minister of Defence, Major (rtd) Derek Oduro has warned journalists in Ghana against retorting to military officers or risk being beaten. Speaking on the back of an alleged attack by some military officers on a freelance journalist on March 6 this year, Major rtd Oduro appeared to rubbish the assault claims insisting that officers will continue to beat up journalists who are ‘loud-mouths’.
Kendrick Offei Ansah, a freelance journalist, narrated an ordeal he suffered at the hands of some military officers to Nana Aba Anamoah on GH One TV’s State of Affairs Tuesday evening. He says the military officers ordered him to follow them to a location at Osu after he had been caught filming an assault on a civilian by the officers on 6th March. He says the soldiers ordered him to delete the said video, crash his phone and later, beat him up for taking the video.
But the President’s pick for the position of Deputy Minister of Defence, Major rtd Derrick Oduro, who was also a guest on the show, said the act perpetrated by the said military officers may have been provoked by the journalist. He says the journalist’s ‘loud-mouth’ may have infuriated the soldiers to mete out the said act. His comments followed an appeal by Kendrick Ansah to the President to have the nomination of the deputy minister-designate revoked due to his ‘insensitivity’ to the plight of the journalist.
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