GJA wants Ayariga brought to book

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 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.