(MFWA/IFEX) – On 15 September 2006, David Tamakloe, a reporter with “The Enquirer” bi-weekly newspaper, was violently attacked by Mercy Anane, wife of Ghana’s minister of road transport, and four others, for allegedly taking pictures of her (Anane). The other assailants, three men who accompanied Anane and her sister, hit Tamakloe in the abdomen and […]
(MFWA/IFEX) – On 15 September 2006, David Tamakloe, a reporter with “The Enquirer” bi-weekly newspaper, was violently attacked by Mercy Anane, wife of Ghana’s minister of road transport, and four others, for allegedly taking pictures of her (Anane).
The other assailants, three men who accompanied Anane and her sister, hit Tamakloe in the abdomen and seized his digital camera, while Anane slapped Tamakloe and tore at his shirt.
According to MFWA’s source, the assault occurred following a press conference by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to announce findings of allegations of corruption, conflict of interest and abuse of office against the minister, Dr. Richard Anane.
Raymond Archer, editor of “The Enquirer” in 2005, published a series of articles accusing Dr Anane of remitting monies from alleged kickbacks to his US mistress with whom he, the minister, had a son. CHRAJ, the constitutional body mandated to investigate allegations of corruption by public officials, instituted investigations into the matter.
CHRAJ found Dr. Anane guilty of perjury and abuse of office and has since recommended his removal from office.
Tamakloe told MFWA in an interview that he had left the conference room and entered the forecourt of CHRAJ to look for his editor when the incident occurred.
He said that, upon seeing him, Mercy Anane and her sister confronted him and started insulting him. The sister shouted, saying: “Raymond Archer has paid you to take photographs of me, take them now,” while Anane slapped him.
In an interview, the lead counsel for Dr. Anane, Jacob Acquah Sampson, could neither deny nor confirm the attack on Tamakloe. He told Citi FM, an Accra based independent radio station, that his information was that Tamakloe had photographed private persons without their consent.
On their way to lodge a complaint at the police station in Accra, Tamakloe, Archer, and two other journalists – Roland Acquah Stevens of Radio Gold, a pro-opposition radio station, and Justice Annan of Kaptal Radio, a privately-owned station based in Kumasi – were then waylaid by three men, one of whom was identified as Samuel Abdulai.
The assailants chased the journalists, who fled in different directions. Tamakloe sought refuge at the premises of the Ghana News Agency.
Archer and Tamakloe have formally filed a complaint at the police headquarters.
