Security agencies must investigate death threats against journalists- Oppong Nkrumah

Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah says security agencies must investigate death threats against journalists in the country.

In a Facebook post, he said: "A number of journalists have reported threats and at least one (1) robbery in the aftermath of the 2020 elections. It has been suggested that these threats are associated with their work as journalists."

He called on the security agencies to get to the bottom of the various complaints.

"It is of critical importance that our security agencies get to the bottom of these complaints and use all the legitimate means at their disposal to unmask the identities of the culprits - whatever their motives - and arrest and prosecute them with speed. Ghana's enviable reputation as a protector of journalists’ rights and freedoms must be preserved.  Manasseh Awuni, Captain Smart, Afia Pokua et al, my thoughts are with you."

READ ALSO : GJA call on Police to investigate death threat against Manasseh Azure

Meanwhile, the Ghana Journalists Association, GJA is also demanding of the Ghana Police Service to investigate, arrest and prosecute as swiftly and decisively as possible, anyone behind death threats to freelance investigative journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni.

Manasseh says he received the threat, the latest in what has virtually become a routine, via email on Christmas Day in which the author serves notice that he will be eliminated and that he was “lucky to still be walking a free man.”

The insipid letter warns in part; “Let me tell you Manasseh or whatever you call yourself, we the good citizens of Ghana will not sit down for a few miscreants like you to destroy that beautiful country. If condition demands that we eliminate rats like you, we will not relent on our oars to do exactly that.

“We are monitoring the present situation in the country very closely, and when it gets out of hand we shall move in swiftly to ensure that we eliminate you to bring finality to these brouhaha going on.”

The threat comes a day after Manasseh published an opinion piece on the recent general election in Ghana he titled “ERRORtoral” Commission and Akufo-Addo’s coup d’état.

In a statement issued by the GJA and signed by its General Secretary, Edmund Kofi Yeboah, the journalists’ umbrella body asks the police to provide adequate security to Manasseh and other journalists across the country who have similarly received death threats.

The GJA also called on President Nana Akufo-Addo as the “Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, to condemn the death threats against journalists and give a firm assurance about their safety and security”.