John Dramani Mahama
We do not know the orders given to the security details of former President John Dramani Mahama during his countrywide campaign. We can bet though that the campaign security coordinator, Maj Gen Sampson Kudjo Adeti (rtd) is not for civility in dealing with especially the media and those opposed to the man who rates him highly.
We are not satisfied as are other Ghanaians that a mere ‘we are investigating it’ is all that the campaign office of the former President can tell us after Joy FM’s Parker Wilson suffered a bloodied face at the hands of a John Mahama detail.
Ghanaians are having a feel of what to expect with Sampson Adeti in charge of the security of the former President as the momentum of the campaign heats up.
More journalists and persons regarded as inclement to the John Mahama project would be subjected to such brutalities as we approach full blown campaign frenzy.
In past editions, we had cause to announce the formation of vigilante groups within the NDC, the Hawks and others, with the purpose of unleashing a reign of terror in the run-up to the next polls in the country.
Decency should be the watchword in local politics. If political parties rely on off-duty land guards to manage their security under the direction of persons with unimpressive moral pedigrees then we should not be surprised when Parker Wilson or others are beaten in the line of duty.
Some media personnel have been targeted or even marked for assault by the John Mahama team. For someone who has been covering the former President to undergo such unprovoked brutality is a suggestion that it could have been worse for others.
The disguised land guard must be found out and brought before the law because he does not have the authority to mete out such brutish action on another citizen not even on the orders of the campaign security coordinator.
Journalists are integral parts of the country especially its democracy as they are in other parts of the world. It is only in dispensations which hardly pass for civilized and democratic that such crude behaviours take place.
We are excited by the Ghana Journalists’ Association’s condemnation of the assault of the journalist. They could not have done more. Some environments where the victim of the brutality found himself are not only hostile they are peopled by persons who are nowhere near civil in their behaviour. Journalists should therefore cease taking things for granted when they go for assignments.
We are even more scared that in today’s Ghana, some of the former President’s supporters could encourage the security detail to plummet the journalists more as if he had not suffered enough beatings.
Given the current make of the former President John Mahama’s campaign team, especially its security department under its coordinator, decency is certainly not an attribute: journalists should therefore prime themselves for more brutalities unless there is a change in the orders.
Will the police fish out the assaulter and bring him to book? Not likely.