Two weeks after a memorable 6th March celebration, it has emerged that a freelance journalist was brutally manhandled by some unidentified men in uniform suspected to be soldiers.
Kendrick Ofei, a young journalist who narrated his ordeal on GhOne flagship program state of affairs revealed that the three soldiers attacked him after he filmed them brutally beating a citizen behind the independence square.
He further stated that the three men in military uniform having noticed him, seized his phone and took him to an unidentified location where the phone was destroyed and he was mercilessly beaten.
Kendrick Ofei explained that he was saved by the timely intervention of a certain Officer in mufti with a W. O Mensah name tag.
“On the sixth of march I decided to go and observe what will go on there, after the event I went behind the venue towards the beach, low and behold I saw three military men beating a civilian in a manner that was an eye saw, so as a freelance journalist I took my camera just to get exclusive of what was going on there, I had even completed taking it when one of them approached me, snatched the phone and told me to follow him for it”
“The moment I entered the barracks, one military man shouted that I wanted to spoil the job, so they began to beat me from all angles and then they requested I deleted the video but at the time, the phone was frozen so I was asked to smash my phone with a stone. They kept hitting me with anything they could lay their hands on.”
Sharing his thoughts on the matter, deputy Defence Minister designate, Major Dereck Oduro admitted that such treatment toward a civilian was unfortunate but was quick to caution against concluding that those three men were military personnel.
He explained that anyone could be clad in military attire but may not be a soldier and hence advised the victim to be patient and wait for the investigative report.
He condemned the men for beating their victims and urged the investigative authorities to take charge and ensure the truth is revealed.
“…It is bad for somebody to beat… if you are a soldier you are not supposed to beat. Once you arrest you hand over the person to the investigative authorities. It is not proper for somebody to beat anybody. However there wouldn’t be any smoke without fire.”
Freelance journalist Kendrick Ofei has vowed to pursue the matter to the bottom to ensure justice is not denied him.
