Col. Gbevlo-Lartey Is Out Of Order

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

On Friday, March 7, 2014, some personnel affiliated with Ghana's National Security Agency were reported to have arrested and detained a group of journalists in the employ of the TV Africa network. The media crew had, reportedly, gone to the small settlement of Adjei Kojo, near the Accra-Tema Motorway, to assess and report on the impact of a heavy downpour that had nearly halted the country's independence anniversary festivities (See "National Security Detain TV Africa Journalists" Citifmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 3/8/14).

In recent weeks, the Adjei Kojo township has been widely featured in the news; and most of the media reportage has bordered on the summary demolition of several private homes on grounds of their having been illegally erected, that is, without the requisite building permit or authorization by the state agency charged with this aspect of our national life.

It appears as if the Mahama-led government of the so-called National Democratic Congress (NDC) has something to hide, or is vigorously attempting to cover up its administrative incompetence, because we are also told that a security detail composed of military and police officers demanded to know why the reporters from the TV Africa network had, of all places, elected to focus their spotlight on the Adjei Kojo township.

That ours is a democratic dispensation which constitutionally allows for the free production and dissemination of information critical to guaranteeing each and every Ghanaian citizen the right to a decent existence and livelihood, does not seem to have mattered to the arresting officers from the National Security Agency. We are told, however, that the TV Africa crew members were let go a short while after having been put through what clearly amounted to an undignified strip search.

For instance, we are told that the crew members were forced to remove their shoes and watches to ensure that they were not carrying any videographical devices that would enable them to piece together an unflattering story against both the security personnel and the Mahama government. It also clearly appears to me that none of the TV Africa crew arrested and detained is a foreign journalist. What this means is that the civil rights of these media operatives may well have been violated.

As of this writing (3/8/14), it was also not clear to me what course of redress the TV Africa journalists might have taken, though it clearly appears to me that the only way of ensuring that they would not be harassed anytime soon, again, will be to promptly seek judicial sanction against the National Security Agency officials who arrested and subjected them to such humiliating strip searches.

This is rather pathetic, but it clearly appears that the key operatives of the Mahama government have yet to fully appreciate the fact that an unfettered media, as well as the full access to an unhindered dissemination of public-interest information is central to the salutary development of our country.

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*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
March 8, 2014
E-mail: [email protected]
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