Rawlingsgate: Journalist detained

Accra - Barely 24 hours after the airwaves were jolted by the broadcast of an audio tape that alluded to some criminal intent on the part of the President of Ghana, the police reacted by detaining a number of people including an office boy.

On Sunday, October 31, Yaw Ampofo-Kwakye, the Managing Director of Kinetic Communications publishers of the Weekend Statesman, reported at the Police Headquarters upon invitation and was detained.

Also detained were Kwesi Twum, Chief Executive, Multi-Media Limited, owners of Joy FM, Mawuli Ocloo, General Manager, Mawuko Zormelo, News Editor and Samuel Attah Mensah, Programmes Manager all of Joy FM.

After questioning, three of them were released with Yaw Ampofo- Kwakye and Mawuko Zormelo kept in police custody overnight.

Then at 1:30am yesterday, Ferdinand O. Ayim of the Statesman group of newspapers and writer of the story, was also arrested by the police to help investigations into how the disputed tape came into his possession. Samuel Otchere, office boy of the Statesman, was also picked because he was said to have delivered the tape to the office, having received it from an unnamed source.

In releasing some of the people, the police seemed to be marginally complying with the constitutional provision of not detaining suspects for more than 48 hours. Excerpts from the tape were originally published by the Weekend Statesman in its October 9 edition in a story headlined "Tapes from The Rawlings Episode".

The story said: "If the tape is to be believed" that the most extraordinary and violent events in the President's era have his handprint. The tape was said to have mentioned an attempted murder of Rev. Palmer Buckle, the Catholic Bishop of Koforidua, the bombing of the Ringway Hotel in Accra and other bombing attempts.

The news file programme of Joy FM aired excerpts of the tape last Saturday, calling for a probe to establish the truth or otherwise of the allegations. By evening of Saturday, the Minister of Interior had issued a statement that described the tape as a fake.

The Minister, Inspector General of Police and Attorney-General had earlier been sent copies of the tape. On Sunday, the Management of Joy FM issued an apology for the broadcast of the tape but that did not appease the police.

The unfolding events took another turn when a group of people marched to the offices of Joy FM to protest against the broadcast of the tapes. Significantly, the police did not act when the publication came out, even though the tape had been sent to the police and security apparatus. This has fuelled speculation that the wide coverage given to the story on Joy FM, which could be heard on the internet, could dent the image of the President in the outside world may have led to the present clampdown on the radio station.