Wisdom Peter Awuku, a reporter of the Daily Guide, an Accra-based privately-owned newspaper was on November 8, 2008 allegedly assaulted by three men guarding a house belonging to Ghana’s former President Jerry John Rawlings in Vume, a town near Sogakope in the Volta Region.

According to Awuku, the guards assaulted him and briefly confiscated his camera, mobile phone and car key. 

Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that Awuku had gone to the area to follow up on an earlier story the newspaper had published about a dead man found lying in front of the former President’s house. 

Awuku told the correspondent that the guards prevented him from photographing the house because he had no permission. When he repositioned himself to take shots of the river on which the dead body was reported to have been floating, the security men besieged him and hit him on his neck before taking away his equipment. 

The correspondent said Akwasi Asafo-Adjei, the Sogakope District police commander intervened for the journalist to get back his equipment.   When contacted Kofi Adams, a special assistant to the former President condemned the Daily Guide and accused it of unprofessionalism.

Adams told MFWA that the guards did not abuse the human rights of the journalist and that their action was justified. 

Media Foundation for West Africa