The Kuku Hill Campaign Centre of the party suspects some journalists and elements in opposition are using their influence in the security agencies to thwart investigations into what they say is a criminal offence.
Days after the Information Minister requested the CID to establish the source of the doctored tape and to also exonerate President Mahama from ethnocentric label, the Public Relations Director at the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council, Clement Kegeri, told Joy FM’s Newsfile on Saturday that he was not aware of the investigations neither has he been contacted by the police.
He was in charge of the media, which have been accused of recording the president at an event they were ostensibly not allowed to be there and doctoring the recording to cause disaffection for the president.
Calls by veteran journalist Kweku Baako and some NPP stalwarts on the CID to abandon its investigations into the matter saying it will end nowhere but rather waste public resources, have pricked some NDC functionaries who suspect the calls are deliberate to shield criminals behind the doctoring.
“Such people by these reckless calls are not only encouraging citizens to commit crime but also condoning crime(s) emanating from the media,” a statement from NDC’s Kuku Hill Campaign Centre, has said.
“The Presidency regrettably is needlessly exposed and the president has become a victim of easy target of calculated partisan blackmails... If they are failing to protect the President, the NDC will be compelled to protect him,” the statement signed by Ebenezer Arkutu said.
It therefore warned: “Any attempt to abandon this important investigation will rather lead to a popular uprising and immediate demand for resignation and/or dismissal of the heads of both the Police CID and the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) for undermining their legitimacy and authority of their mandate to protect the sovereignty of Ghana in the face of emerging partisan political ‘Boko Haram’”.
Below is the Full STATEMENT:
MAY 12TH, 2014
NPP’s KUMASI TRIBAL BLACKMAIL OF PRESIDENT JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA – CONFIRMS BY THE FAILURE OF THE INDEPENDENT MEDIA HOUSES TO CONFIRM STORY WITH THEIR REPORTERS
Given that till date apart from Ultimate Radio (the sole media source of the doctored tape) none of the credible media houses including Multimedia are unable to confirm the story with their respective reporters at the political event in Kumasi. This makes the management of Ultimate Radio prime suspect of conspiring and/or doctoring the tape with the aim of harming the presidency of Ghana.
Again, this confirms Government’s position that detractors/enemies of this administration doctored the tape calculatingly to hurt the flawless tribal reputation of the President, John Dramani Mahama.
A doctored tape misrepresenting the President aimed at instigating tribal hatred and/or fuelling tribal conflict is a height of criminality which cannot be condoned by covering up by any good Citizen including journalists.
We therefore call on the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service together with the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) to ignore calls from criminal minded people to halt its criminal investigation into this matter – such people by these reckless calls are not only encouraging Citizens to commit crime but also condoning crime(s) emanating from the media.
Why should any lawful minded journalist shield a criminal? A socially minded progressive journalism has no room for protecting criminal sources. Criminal sources in themselves are threat to the integrity of journalism. In the face of criminality protecting one’s source does not hold. The appeal to journalists (by virtue of their profession) not to co-operate with the police by assisting in disclosing the source of the doctored tape in itself is a crime – such criminal minded persons urging journalists to withhold information from the police in fighting crime must be denied social life by the law to live in our midst for their freedom promotes crime and social corruption.
We hereby call on the Police CID/the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) as a matter of urgency to invite and/or arrest the management of Ultimate Radio for questioning and to take appropriate measures thereafter to protect and preserve the sanctity of the presidency of Ghana.
We are by this serving notice to all to stay clear off the ongoing investigation by the Police CID/Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) particularly reckless calls from criminal minded persons to end the ongoing criminal investigation shouting that it will be fruitless amounting to a waste of time. Any attempt to abandon this important investigation will rather lead to a popular uprising and immediate demand for resignation and/or dismissal of the heads of both the Police CID and the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) for undermining their legitimacy and authority of their mandate to protect the sovereignty of Ghana in the face of emerging partisan political “Boko Haram”.
This time, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will not tolerate any failure on the part of the Police Service or Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) in not finding the perpetrators of this media crime. Its collective failures are too many—it failed in dealing with the sexual blackmailing of the President as a gay, followed by fake Mahama sex photo(s), bribery of Justices of the Supreme Court through Asantehene, accusation of personally preventing Merchant Bank from recovering its loan from Ibrahim Mahama’s Company, to name but a few.
The Presidency regrettably is needlessly exposed and the President has become a victim of easy target of calculated partisan blackmails. This is the price the President, John D. Mahama the leader of the NDC is paying for the incompetence and failures of state institutions mandated to protect him from criminal partisan gangs. If they are failing to protect the President, the NDC will be compelled to protect him.
The President’s position of strength cannot and must not be weakened by him upholding institutional separation of powers and non- interference in the working of state institutions.
It is clear; there is a sinister partisan tribal agenda by the opposition, New Patriotic Party (NPP) to cast President Mahama in the tribal image of Nana Akufo-Addo at all cost. This sinister partisan tribal agenda is arrogantly pursued calculatedly of not only declaring all residents of Kumasi as Ashantis but also subjecting the credible progressive media houses in Ghana into conspirators silenced ultimately for political power.
It is instructive that Multimedia safeguards the integrity of the independent media in Ghana. The National Democratic Congress in spite of our occasional objective factual differences with Multimedia hold’s it in high esteem for its impressive long journalistic/news standards – it is for this we challenge Multimedia to set the records straight through its highly respected reporters in this matter. The media cannot survive and seek to be respected in a doctored news environment.
How is it that the independent media houses including Multimedia with seasoned field reporters accompanying the presidential convey during the entire tour of the Ashanti region and present at the political rally addressed by the President failed to report on this news to their various media houses? How did they miss it? Or how is it that they are unwilling to put forward their own recordings of the statement made by the President? Or still reluctant to own up their assigned field reporters for questioning and public scrutiny. This conduct is not only unacceptable but also questionable. It is scary.
We wish to state clearly that President John D. Mahama is above tribal reproach and remains above the cynicism of the media as well as the tribal bigotry of the opposition, New Patriotic Party (NPP). The cynicism of the Ghanaian media in all of these is manifest to large extent by its continuous failure to question the source of the tape enough and/or doing little to take the position of truth/fact in this matter of public interest.
Is the Ghanaian media waiting on BBC to seize the opportunity to question the opposition, New Patriotic Party on the authenticity of the tape very much so when its content cannot be confirmed by the mainstream media houses present at the political event? Or rightness of tribally colouring, resident of Kumasi as ASHANTIS?
President John D. Mahama will never ever apologise to anybody—or residents of Kumasi who consider themselves ungrateful of the ongoing massive development projects in Kumasi and beyond. These ungrateful residents of Kumasi cannot seek ethnic refuge in Ashantis and/or Asanteman.
Asanteman must be heard. Ashanteman has a leadership responsibility to restrain its sons/daughters who are members in the New Patriotic Party and beyond from habitually dragging Asantehene/Asanteman into tribal partisan politics at any least opportunity. The residents in Kumasi are all not Ashantis – The Asantehene therefore has a traditional duty to dissociate Asanteman from these tribal elements in the NPP or its tolerance of such elements will risk losing respect/authority of other equally influential tribes in Ghana whose sons and daughters are jealously protective of their culture, tradition and heritage.
It is our position that the Asantehene must resist the NPP’S tribal politicization of Asanteman for political gain for the sake of its culture, tradition and heritage.
LONG LIVE PRESIDENT JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA!!
LIVE GHANA!!
LONG LIVE THE NDC!!
SIGNED...
EBENEZER ARKUTU
COMMUNICATION/PRESS BUREAU
Source;ghanaweb
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