'Nat’l Security never tortured me; never saw my Dep. Editor tortured' – ModernGhana reporter

Mr Emmanuel Britwum, one of the two ModernGhana journalists who were arrested, detained and allegedly tortured and assaulted by National Security operatives, has denied ever suffering any torture or seeing his other colleague, Mr Emmanuel Ajarfor Augri, tortured.

In a statement issued through his lawyer Debora Asabere-Ameyaw on Wednesday, 3 July 2019, Mr Britwum said he was “neither tortured nor brutalised” in any way as alleged.

Mr Abugri, on the other hand, has claimed that he was tasered, kicked and punched during his 48-hour detention.

The two were arrested on Thursday following a raid on their office by the security operatives.

Mr Ajarfor claimed their heads were covered with black polythene bags to prevent them from seeing anything while they were driven to an unknown location for grueling and torturing interrogation.

The main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), the Minority in Parliament, the Ghana Journalists Association, as well as several civil society groups have condemned the alleged assault even though the National Security Secretariat denied any such assault took place.

Mr Britwum’s statement issued by his lawyer said he “dissociates himself from allegations of misconduct being levelled in his name against the National Security” in connection with his “alleged unlawful arrest”.

According to him, he is giving the security agencies his full cooperation with the investigations.



Meanwhile, journalist and legal practitioner Samson Lardi Anyenini who is one of the lawyers representing the two journalists before Mr Britwum’s new lawyer suddenly popped up, said the journalist admitted to him five times just five hours before his U-turn that he was “assaulted” and “slapped” by the security operatives.

He wondered what could have caused Mr Britwum to flip like he did within a short period, adding that he was not going to represent such a client.