Free Press’ vicious attack on Veep ...

Last Sunday, Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama was part of a tragic road accident. Travelling back from a meeting with the Omanhene in Sunyani, Brong Ahafo Region, the vehicle directly behind him was involved in an accident – killing three of his police security guards.

From eye witness reports we have received, the convoy was climbing up a hill on a bend when the vehicle with the guards, at top speed, suddenly realized that it was going to drive into the vehicle of the Vice President of the Republic. In order to avoid the collision, the vehicle was steered off course, but with the driver hitting hard on the break suddenly, which caused it to roll over, throwing out some of its passengers, with at least one crushing his skull due to the impact.

It could have been the Vice President also losing his life had the vehicle with the guards not avoided the collision. The dead, as at least every Ghanaian who watches television news should know, were dedicated, professional men who served our Vice President with distinction. The tall and slender Sgt Major Bawah Ayomah, with a customary scar on his face was one person we do remember very well.

A clearly traumatised and bereaved Vice President went to visit the families of his former workers on Tuesday, who have been named as Sgt Major Bawah Ayomah; Sgt Edward Anane Koranteng and Sgt Azumah Alhassan.

The incident is yet another harrowing example of the problem of road safety, or lack of it, in our country – with other prominent recent cases including the death of the Special Assistant to the Minister of Tourism, Ferdinand Ayim, in May this year; and the death of three of the country’s leading neurosurgeons in another road accident in 2005.

The families of the victims deserve sympathy and support for the tragedy they have faced – and recognition for the service they have done to the police and to their country.

The Statesman is shocked, therefore, with the callous opportunism of oddity with which the tragedy has been embraced by the Free Press newspaper, who splashed ‘Vice President in dark occultism?’ allegations across the front page of yesterday’s edition.

In the “latest twist” surrounding the so-called “mystery” of Sunday’s fatal road accident, “the native Brongs have accused him [Alhaji Mahama] of sacrificing three of his body guards for the realisation of his dark cult presidential ambition,” according to the newspaper.

“There have been growing concerns by many that, the ghastly accident involving the Veep’s convoy which killed three of his body guards was party of the Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama’s pacification of the gods in order to be successful in his campaign for the 2008 NPP flagbearership,” the newspaper claims.

Throughout the article, the unfortunate bodyguards are described as the “victims” of Alhaji Mahama’s dark occult plans, deliberately orchestrated to enhance his “bloody spiritual powers.”

The ordeal faced by the Vice President himself is dismissed, as he “escaped unhurt by his magical powers.” An incident earlier in the day, when Alhaji Mahama’s dispatch rider was thrown off his motorbike but survived, unscathed, is cited as further “evidence” for the flimsy non-case made by the Free Press about the Veep’s evil intentions.

The newspaper cites “residents of the Brong Ahafo regional capital, Sunyani and its neighbouring towns like Chira, Takyiman, Fiapre, Domase, Berekum Drobo and Dormaa Ahenkro,” as those who have accused the Vice President of “deliberate shedding of human blood” in his bid to lobby for the 2008 presidential bid. Not a single one of these supposed sources is quoted; and The Statesman is severely doubtful whether the newspaper actually spoke to locals in all of these towns – or indeed, any at all.

Certainly, there is not a scrap of evidence provided for the story, which we believe has done more to damage the face of the newspaper who pedaled it than that of the Vice President himself.

To play on people’s superstitions, to tap into our fear of witchcraft, may have been seen as a way to sell newspapers – but it is not the way that the paper that the late Tommy Thompson founded and was consistently brutalised for under the PNDC ought to handle the sensitive case of a series of deaths on our roads. Indeed, Tommy Thompson died during one of his trials. This was a crusading paper, which epitomised press persecution.

Writing yesterday in The Statesman, Mary Morgan painted a sometimes scathing analysis of our media landscape, and of the efflorescence of newspaper titles in particular which ebb and flow from our newsstands.

So far, the Free Press is one paper which has stood the test of time. During the Rawlings years, its offices were several times attacked, its editors and reporters imprisoned for its critical stance on government, even when that criticism meant a considerable threat to themselves. In fact, the editor in the early 1980s, John Kugblenu, fell ill in detention and died shortly after his release. After a six-year absence from the market between 1986 and 1992, the Free Press, along with The Statesman was at the forefront of the ongoing attrition of what they perceived to be a corrupt, fraudulent and stifling regime.

Based on its story of yesterday, however, we share no affinity with the modern-day Free Press. We call on the editor to substantiate his claims or to retract and apologise for making them, and we call upon other media houses to join with us in our denunciation of this kind of unhelpful sensationalism. Of the many newspapers currently elbowing for room on our newspaper stands, for minutes on our news review programmes, there is space for intelligent argument and analysis, there is space for titles with a clear but fair political agenda, there is space for integral reporting from across the political spectrum, there is even space for tabloid journalism and promoting the ambitions of certain personalities.

What there should not be space for, however, is this kind of insensitive shot-taking and stirring up of suspicion after such a major tragedy. The public should be more discerning, the media more critical, than to swallow or tolerate this kind of pseudo-journalism.

We are also disappointed by the fact that a reputable station like Joy FM saw it fit to review such a story during its highly patronised newspaper review segment.

The Vice President of the Republic deserves better. The dead deserve better. The living victims deserve better. Readers and listeners deserve better.