Justice for Latif: GJA condemns ‘mind-boggling’ Police Attitude

The Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) has express with deep shock as how the outcome of the Assault from the Ghana Police headquarters against Joy News journalist, Latif Iddrisu, has come to a stand-still from March of this year.

“The GJA will win not flinch in its resolve to seek justice for Latif,” the Association’s President, Affail Monney, said at a news conference in Accra on Friday.

Mr Monney said it was “mind-boggling” that the Ghana Police Service, which has a commendable reputation of catching perpetrators of hidden heinous crimes would say it cannot identify officers who unprofessionally brutalised the reporter because CCTV cameras at the scene of the attack were not functioning.

BACKGROUND

Latif Iddrisu was on March 27, 2018, beaten repeatedly by a group of police officers at the National Headquarters, where he had gone to report on the arrest of Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Koku Anyidoho.

Latif Iddrisu has been left with a fractured skull and his health has been deteriorating.

Police say its inability to bring the perpetrators to book because they could not be captured on CCTV at the CID Headquarters where the incident occurred.

MIND-BOGGLING

“It is mind-boggling that four months the assault has taken place at the police headquarters, the citadel of police intelligence, the culprits have not been identified. Probably the incident happened in a dark alley,” Mr Monney said during the press encounter.

Earlier, the GJA had said it was unhappy with the seeming reluctance of Inspector General of Police (IGP), David Asante-Apeatu, in the handling of the assault case.

The GJA is yet to hear from the police after officially writing to the IGP requesting full disclosure on investigations into the case.

“We made a report to the police and we met with the IGP and his team and they actually promised us that they were going to furnish us with the outcome of the findings, and it’s been months now, we’ve not heard anything from them.

It’s like they are taking this thing for granted,” – GJA President added.