Militia documentary: Wrong impression about Akufo-Addo is regretted – JoyNews

JoyNews, a subsidiary of Multimedia Group Limited says its recent documentary on vigilantism in the country which exposed “some untoward activity happening at the Castle” never mentioned President Akufo-Addo as having nursed the De Eye Group.

In a commentary aired on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Monday, April 15, editor of Myjoyonline.com indicated that there have been some concerns that the documentary sought to suggest that the President knew about the activities of the militia group at the Castle yet refused to order for their evacuation, stressing that it was certainly not the case.

Despite issuing the disclaimer, Malik Daabu noted that the inconvenience caused the President was regretted.

He said: “I think it’s appropriate at this juncture to talk about the misconstruction of the documentary which we put out, detailing some untoward activity happening at the Castle of some vigilante group engaged in some activity there, there were those who on the back of that documentary kind of thought that or created the impression that the President, whilst he was condemning vigilantism, was also nurturing this group at his own backyard.”

“Our documentary did not create any such impression, and I think it’s important to stress that point. All our documentary did was to report on what was happening… the only thing our documentary mentioned was that the person who was leading this group was a former bodyguard of the president when he was not president.”

“He (Nana Akufo-Addo) was an ordinary citizen, a candidate of a political party. Our documentary actually pointed out that this person had been sacked so the unfortunate impression created that the president was nursing these guys while at the same time condemning this was not on the basis of our documentary, and it’s important to state that any such impressions or inconvenience caused the president is regretted.”

The documentary which is an undercover work by Manasseh Azure Awuni titled, ‘Militia in the Heart of the City’ captures a group of young men and women said to be members of a private security firm or militia group known as De-Eye Group during a meeting at the Christiansburg Castle at Osu, the former seat of government.

Operating for the past two years, Manasseh found that the group had already provided security for a number of party functions which the president had taken part in.

A leader of the group, Nana Wireko Addo, in the undercover work after one of such functions, conveyed President Akufo-Addo’s warm impressions to the group when they provided security for an event at the International Conference Centre in 2018.

The NPP however denied having any form of affiliation with the alleged militia group.

A statement released and signed by the Director of Communications, Yaw Buaben Asamoah read: “Whilst any effort at helping rid the country of politically related violence is welcome and is to be commended, the NPP wishes to state unequivocally for the records that it has no connection to the purported group shown in the documentary. The NPP has not established any such group and is neither affiliated to nor supports one.”