Mavis Hawa Koosom
The Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development and Member of Parliament for the Awutu Senya East, Hawa Mavis Koosom is appealing to the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) to rescind its decision to boycott any activities involving her ministry.
This follows an alleged attack on the Cape Coast-based Cape FM’s journalist, Ohene Kwame David during the vetting of parliamentary aspirants of the NPP at Cape Coast last year December.
Due to that, President of the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA), Albert Kwabena Dwumfour at a press conference urged Journalists to give a total media blackout to Mavis Hawa Koomson and stay away from her as the Minister of State.
“This is after intel picked because we believe there are thugs around the MP who pose a threat to the lives of journalists and other media practitioners,” Albert Kwabena Dwumfour told journalists.
Hawa Responses
The MP, Hawa Koomson in her response rejected the claims that the attack emanated from her camp and requested for a deeper investigation into the matter.
Press Secretary to the Minister, Kabore Awudu Moro in a statement said ‘’While unequivocally condemning the reported incident, the Honorable Minister vehemently denies all accusations leveled against her and her associates’’.
According to him, ‘’Acknowledging the vital role of the media in our democracy, the Minister is committed to fostering an environment that safeguards journalists in their duty. The Honourable Minister urges the GJA leadership to reconsider the blacklisting decision, emphasizing the absence of evidence implicating her in the incident’’.
He said the Minister calls for trust in the Ghana Police Service’s ongoing investigation to apprehend the alleged attacker.
‘’In the spirit of collaboration, the Office of the Honourable Minister will initiate a dialogue with the GJA leadership in the coming days to address any misunderstandings and chart a way forward, fostering a constructive relationship between the Ministry and the media’’ the statement added.
NPP
In relationship to the incident, the Awutu Senya East New Patriotic Party has described as unfair the directive by the Ghana Journalists Association to journalists to blacklist activities involving Kasoa MP Mavis Hawa Koomson over an attack on a journalist at Cape Coast during the NPP’s vetting of parliamentary aspirants.
The party insists the attack on the journalist was neither orchestrated nor carried out by the camp of the MP.
Responding to the Ghana Journalists Association’s directive to journalists to blacklist the Kasoa MP, the leadership of the Awutu Senya East New Patriotic Party described the directive as unfair.
The Constituency Secretary, Michael Addy addressing a presser expressed disappointment over the fact that the MP’s office heard nothing again regarding the investigations after initial contact with the MP by the GJA.
He also expressed dissatisfaction about a statement made by the GJA president that the MP parades murderers who attack people even at their homes and mosques and wants that retracted and an apology rendered to the MP.
The Party has therefore called for much deeper investigations into the matter before any conclusions are made by the GJA as it says it has carried out an inward investigation at the MP’s camp and realized that no member of the MP’s team took part in that attack.
-BY Daniel Bampoe