Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), has urged the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) to take immediate action to restore its reputation following the assault of a journalist by its personnel.
The victim, Samuel Addo of Class Media Group (CMG), was reportedly beaten to a pulp on Monday, January 5, while documenting the aftermath of the devastating fire that had ravaged over 100 stores.
According to his account, he witnessed approximately 10 fire officers allegedly assaulting civilians and began filming the confrontation.
Speaking on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM on January 6, Mr Braimah described the behaviour of fire service personnel in Kasoa as deeply troubling.
“Certainly what I’ve seen, and I believe that is what everyone else has seen, in terms of the incident involving the fire service personnel and other people, and I’m told it happened in Kasoa, is certainly despicable.” he said “It’s, for me, an act that severely undermines the reputation and integrity, if any, of the Ghana National Fire Service.”
He criticised messages from the GNFS’s Public Relations Officer, which appeared to justify the assault.
“Yesterday, I saw some messages going around attributed to the PRO of the Ghana National Fire Service, which were sort of to justify what had happened.”
“Initially, we were told that,” he said, “well, what happened was not an assault but an attempt to seize the phone of the journalist, because the journalist was recording an incident without permission. That even made matters worse for me.”
Mr Braimah said the incident challenged his long-held belief in the professionalism of the GNFS.
“And at that point, I told myself, well, perhaps I was wrong in my long-held assumption that the Ghana National Fire Service is a professional institution, because I don’t think any professional institution would have its personnel conduct themselves in the manner that we all saw in the video.”
“And then the entire institution, the establishment, coming out to speak and doing so in the way that the PRO had done yesterday.”
He expressed disappointment in the institution’s credibility and urged leadership to act.
“So, for me, I think it is something that deeply, deeply undermines the reputation and the credibility of the Ghana National Fire Service.”
“And I can only hope that the leadership of that institution would take the appropriate actions to redeem itself and to redeem the reputation of the institution so that at least we can continue to have some hope that the fire service that we have is a professional institution.”
Mr Braimah warned that such behaviour, if unchecked, could escalate.
“But what clearly happened, if you look at it and you feel these are rogues, these are like some yo-yo men, the same way we see people sometimes abuse supposed thieves and mete out instant justice to them, which we all condemn.”
“And you would expect that if officers of the law feel that somebody has done something that is contrary to the law, or contrary to whatever they think ought to be the right thing, they would approach the situation based on the law and not begin to exert physical force as we saw it yesterday.”
He emphasised the importance of corrective action.
“I can only hope that the right measures are taken, and I’ve seen in a statement issued by the media house that the journalist works for, we certainly are interested in this.”
Finally, he cautioned about the consequences of inaction.
“And without any action, the infinity would continue. If allowed, we would even perhaps see worse in the future.”
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