Prime News Ghana

Akufo-Addo cannot remain silent on Caleb Kudah – Prof Azar

By George Nyavor
President Akufo-Addo
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US-based Ghanaian lawyer, Prof Stephen Kwaku Asare, wants President Nana Akufo-Addo to speak on the alleged manhandling and other human right abuses meted out to a journalist by National Security operatives.

Caleb Kudah said he was kicked, slapped and punched for several hours by both plainclothes and uniformed police and military personnel of the agency for entering the security installation and filming abandoned vehicles at the premises without permission.

Although the National Security Ministry has promised to look into the allegation, Prof Asare, known popularly as Prof Azar, said Nana Akufo-Addo cannot remain silent on the matter.

“The President cannot be silent on Caleb Kudah. Silence will be an endorsement of the impunity. But mere speech is also not enough. Heads must roll. Not just at National Security but also at Jubilee House, where some staff have endorsed the impunity,” he stated in one of his numerous posts on the matter on Facebook.

The National Security Ministry in a statement on Thursday, May 13, 2021, pledged to investigate allegations that its operatives manhandled the journalist on Tuesday.

In the press statement, the Ministry said the protection of the rights and freedoms of Ghanaians remains a cornerstone to safeguarding the peace and stability of the State and hence it is committed to upholding the ethics and professional standards guiding its operational duties.

Many have, however, called for an independent probe because it would be wrong for the Ministry to investigate itself.

READ ALSO: ‘I feel pain in my side, back’ – Citi FM’s Caleb narrates torture experience

Prof Azar believes, “the clearest signal must be sent to all that the country has closed the chapter on the bugabuga days. Only the President can do that just as it is only the President, whose silence, will tacitly endorse the impunity.”

 Ghana's National Security operatives are notorious for assaulting civilians and government officials.

On many occasions, they have made news for the use of excessive force and many unlawful conducts.

Under different administrations, they have grabbed headlines for a myriad of anti-democratic activities.

Under the current New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, the height of the excessive show of force was during the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election.

Led by DSP Samuel Koo Azugu, the operatives shot many rounds of bullets and brutalised persons they suspect were attempting to disrupt the by-election. A Commission of Inquiry was instituted to look into that incident.

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