Officers entered the premises of privately-owned OTEC FM and assaulted two staff members.
(MFWA/IFEX) – On 16 September 2010, a group of angry prison officers in Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city, stormed the premises of privately-owned OTEC FM and attacked two staff members, including the programmes manager, Kate Frema Adomako.
One of the officers reportedly shoved Adomako onto the ground after shoving and heckling the security guard and forcibly entering the premises.
Adomako, who confirmed the incident to the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), said the officers were at the station to attack a panelist, Francis Dodovi, a sympathizer of the ruling National Democratic Congress, who they claimed had been discrediting a demonstration they staged on 15 September. The demonstration had been organized to protest what the prison officers said was discrimination against them in a new pay policy for the country.
Dodovi, who was alleged to have described the demonstration as “irresponsible”, was held hostage by the officers for about thirty minutes.
Adomako said that had neighbors and other staff members not intervened, the officers would have attacked Dodovi in the studio.
The police have launched an investigation into the matter.
