By Iddi
Yire, GNA
Accra, Aug 29, GNA – Mr Affail Monney,
President, Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), has called on the authorities
to ensure that Mr Hassan Ayariga, Founder of All People’s Congress (APC), is
brought to book.
He said this was because Mr Ayariga allegedly
hired thugs to attack Mr Jerry Azanduna, a senior reporter of the Ghana News
Agency (GNA) in Bawku in the Upper East Region, under the cover of inviting him
for a News conference.
Mr Monney, who made the appeal on Wednesday
during the launch of the 23rd GJA Awards in Accra, said no one was above the
laws of the land.
This year, the GJA flagship event is on the
theme: “State of Investigative Journalism: Boundaries of Privacy and Borders of
Public Interest”, would take place on October 27 at the Kempiski Hotel in
Accra, with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the Special Guest of
Honour.
Mr Monney said: “Someone who aspired to occupy
the most consequential position in the land. But who without any sense of
shame, any iota of civility and without any trait of conscience organised thugs
of voracious beasts to pounce on a journalist he had invited to cover an
assignment in his (Ayariga’s) own home.”
“Jerry Azanduna had a crash with death because
of Hassan Ayariga’s thuggery. Our concern is dedicated on the principles that
once you touch one journalists, you touch all of us. So as we speak, all of us
are bleeding profusely from the attack.”
He said
the law must be allowed to take its own course; stating that “No one is above
and the law. And certainly Hassan Ayariga is not above the law so we expect the
law to deal with him surgically”.
A couple of weeks ago, Mr Azanduna, GNA Bawku
correspondent reported on an incident, where Mr Hassan Ayariga, Founder of All
People’s Congress was allegedly attacked by a Tie and Dye producer at the Bawku
Municipality.
The story allegedly infuriated the
unsuccessful 2016 Presidential candidate and if to teach the Reporter a bitter
lesson, Mr Ayariga allegedly organised thugs who lured the Reporter by inviting
him to cover a non-existent News Conference, where he was further taken to Mr
Ayariga’s house.
At his house, Mr Ayariga allegedly ordered his
thugs to beat the Reporter up, which they obliged and beat up the reporter
until the arrival of some security men at his premises.
GNA