Lydia Forson. INSET: (Top left) The National Security officer during the confrontation and (bottom left) The policeman
Actress Lydia Forson has been physically assaulted by a man who claimed to be a National Security operative in the presence of a police officer who did little to stop the attack.
The unfortunate incident took place while the actress and other crew members were filming at National Film & Television Institute (NAFTI) hostel at Cantonment in Accra, a location often used for movie productions by NAFTI students.
The ‘Perfect Picture’ actress posted a video of the assault incident on her Instagram page on Monday.
The assault followed a verbal altercation between Miss Forson and the security official, whose name is readily not known.
He allegedly punched her and threatened to further beat her up while he tried to stop her from videoing their altercation.
“l can beat you if I want, my authority gives me that right and no one can do anything about it,” he said to Lydia, according to a post on her website, Lydiaforson.com.
Narrating what transpired, Lydia said, “A few minutes into the shoot a car drives up and a man with a walkie talkie jumps out and tells us we’re not permitted to be there.
Our director insists that we are, he together with the crew try to reason with the man but he refuses and the director decides that we should just leave to avoid what seemed like a situation that was escalating.”
She continued, “I observed all of this from a distance and noticed the man was fixated on the female crew member who happened to be the one driving. As she turned to leave, he started to verbally assault her, why? Because she had “dared” challenge his claim that we weren’t allowed there; he continued to hurl insults at her until I heard him say finally “you think you are somebody.”
“And by his utterances I could tell things were about to get ugly, so I walked up to him and said he didn’t need to go that far, especially since we were already leaving. He immediately turned on me, like a poked bear ready to devour its prey. Now before I continue, you should know we were just about four women there with about 10 men.”
“Men who were shouting, calling him out and insisting that he was in the wrong, even when one rushed up to his face he didn’t as much as raise a hand to them.”
But the minute I stepped in, I wasn’t allowed into the “boys only zone”, I was an intruder and my presence alone was a threat to the size of his balls.”
“Without hesitation, he turned on me and started making threats; I took out my phone and decided to record his actions but that only aggravated him because it meant I had the upper hand, it meant he couldn’t lie about what happened later.
“He quickly lunged at me and tried to hit the phone out of my hand, in the process he punched my arm and continued to come for me. Save by the crew, this man was ready to beat me to a pulp and he said as much.”
“When I told him he didn’t have the right to, he responded with a smirk on his face “I can beat you if I want, my authority gives me that right and no one can do anything about it,” she added.
According to her, the man wasn’t alone. He was with a policeman who, although didn’t join in the attack, did very little to the man.