Calls For Independent Probe into National Security Torture OF CITI FM Reporter Intensifies

Calls have intensified for an independent probe into the armed raid of CITI FM and the brutal torture of the station’s reporter by National Security operatives on Tuesday, May 11, 2021.

Caleb Kudah was punched, slapped and kicked in the groin by operatives, including the Director of Operations of the National Security, Lt. Col Agyemang when they found out that Mr. Kudah had surreptitiously sneaked into their premises to take pictures and videos intended to expose a deep cover-up by the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) of dozens of brand new cars bought with state resources and abandoned to rot away at premises of the National Security.

The ensuing widespread public backlash had forced the Ministry of National Security to quickly issue a statement claiming it was going to launch an internal probe into the incident. But the public has rubbished the assurance, given that this is the umpteenth time the National Security has brutalised and tortured citizens and journalists without any sanctions.

The latest to call for an independent probe is the pressure group, Occupy Ghana, which has called on the government to establish an independent body of inquiry to investigate the allegations of assault and brutality of the reporter from CITI FM.

In a press statement dated May 14, Occupy Ghana explained their demand for an independent body of inquiry, “We have no faith that the National Security Ministry can provide a satisfactory investigation into the damning allegations. Therefore, we would like to advise the government to set up an independent body of inquiry into the matter.”

According to Occupy Ghana, it is worried about the increasing rate at which security agencies are brutalising journalists and citizens with reckless abandon.

 “We also notice the nonchalance in verbiage and the non-subtle attempt of the Chief Director of the Ministry to brand the serious allegations and the Guantanamo Bay-style assaults as ‘interrogation’ that clearly did not respect the right of the person to a lawyer,” Occupy Ghana wrote. 

According to Occupy Ghana, such brutish behaviour “have no place in a civilised democracy, a 29-year-old democratic experiment, and under a republican constitution that touts the rule of law.”

“The allegations outline a bestial culture of impunity, an animalistic disregard for basic human rights and a demonic manifestation of tendencies that have no place even in a holocaust camp,” they said.

On Tuesday, May 11, 2021, Caleb Kudah, was arrested for filming the car park of the Ministry of National Security where scores of saloon cars imported with public funds by the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) had been left to rot away. 

Whatsup News gathered that Mr. Kudah had actually photographed the cars sometime in 2018 and had made reference to it again recently on his Facebook page. But the MASLOC had swung into defence, saying the vehicles had been distributed to beneficiaries.

But in his attempt to ascertain the veracity of MASLOC’s claim, Mr. Kodua had sneaked into the car park to verify. He said, contrary to the claim of MASLOC, when he gained access to the location of the parked cars, only a few had been evacuated as a substantial number was still left abandoned as they were in 2018.

Caleb Kudah, who narrated his traumatic ordeal on The Point of View on Citi TV, said he was detained and interrogated for hours on Tuesday, May 11, 2021, after irate National Security goons had subjected him to sustained beatings and torture.  

“They pushed me and I sat on the chair. They [National Security operatives] slapped me from the back. I was trying to appeal to them that they had beaten me enough, but they were just slapping me from the back. I’ll be talking to another one and someone will just come and slap me from the back.”

They snatched his mobile telephone and deleted the video he had captured. However, the security officers realised he had already forwarded copies to another colleague at CITI FM, so they raided the radio station with assault weapons in search of one Zoe Abu-Baidoo, a close colleague of Caleb Kudah.

Pandemonium struck CITI FM on Tuesday when the heavily armed state security officials in about five vehicles invaded the radio station.