Parliament To Probe Promotion Of Journalist Beater; Col. Frank Agyeman

Ranking Member on Parliament’s Defense and Interior Committee, James Agalga, has said legislators will look into the promotion of Lt. Col. Frank Agyeman as the Commanding Officer of the 64 Infantry Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces.

In an interview monitored by WhatsUp News, he said the issue will be taken to plenary if it escalates.

“I am told that the officer who was reassigned and presented to the Chief of the Defence Staff for disciplinary actions has even now been appointed as the Commanding Officer of the 64 Infantry Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces. That is a matter that we will be interrogating in due course,” he stated.

Lt. Col. Agyeman, together with three other officers were, on May 20, relieved of their duties after a preliminary investigation into the assault of a Citi FM journalist, Caleb Kudah, indicted them according to a National Security press release.

He had been specifically named by Mr. Kudah as the man who made him kneel down before kicking him in the groin while the journalist was in handcuffs.

After the preliminary investigation, Lt. Col. Agyeman was stripped of his position as the Director of Operations at the National Security Ministry.

The Ministry had gone on to “assure the general public and particularly all media practitioners that the Ministry will expeditiously investigate any complaints against any personnel of its agencies.”

However, barely 24 hours after this assurance, President Akufo-Addo appointed the same Lt. Col. Agyeman to the position of Commanding Officer of the 64 Infantry Regiment, in what amounts to a promotion.

 “So to some extent, it appears that the gentleman in question, Lt. Col. Agyeman has been rewarded for his misconduct,” James Agalga who is also the MP for Builsa North said.

According to him Parliament will also look into the review of the position held by DSP Samuel Kojo Azugu, the notorious National Security commander who led the Ayawaso West Wuogon gun violence.

The Emile Short Commission which investigated the violence had recommended a scraping of Azugu’s position but he still remains at the National Security.