Chief of Staff takes up Stan Dogbe’s assault case

The Chief of Staff has taken up the case in which one of its staffers, Stan Dogbe, reportedly attacked a journalist and destroyed his recorder for allegedly recording a private conversation.

A member of the National Democratic Congress legal team, Abraham Amaliba who disclosed this on TV3’s New Day said the decision was necessitated by the fact that the incident has put the name of the presidency into disrepute.

“This morning, there is going to be a meeting on this matter,” he said, during the newspaper review segment on the show Wednesday morning. He, however, did not give details on the said meeting.

Yahaya of GBC Radio was attacked August 20 at the 37 Military Hospital where presidential correspondents were hospitalized after an accident, which killed Ghanaian Times reporter, Samuel Nuamah.

He was said to be eavesdropping a conversation between Mr. Dogbe and Communications Minister, Dr. OmaneBoamah on how to break the news of the death of the late Nuamah to his family; something that prompted the attack

But Mr. Amaliba noted in as much as the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation journalist, YahayaKwamoah, might have acted unprofessionally, the reaction of Stan Dogbe was unacceptable.

“He (the journalists) might have treaded on wrong lines but I don’t think the outcome was to attack and break his recorder,” he said.

He disagreed with Mr. Samuel Atta-Mensah, a media practitioner who was also on the show and asked Mr. Dogbe to apologise, and offer explanation in the case if there is any.

Mr. Amaliba argued that the issue of apology is an individual decision, hence wouldn’t want to take what he called the “high moral ground to tell somebody to apologise”.

To him, since it is allowed that a victim and a perpetrator could come into agreement to settle their differences, particularly in a misdemeanour case, there is nothing wrong for Mr. Dogbe and the journalist to settle the case.

Responding, Mr. Atta- Mensah described the intervention by the Chief of Staff as a waste of time since there are more important issues for the Chief of Staff to work on.

He said considering Mr. Dogbe’s experience in the media, he should know better and apologise for his action that has wide condemnation from the Ghanaians including the Media Foundation for West Africa.

Mr. Atta- Mensah who is the Chief Executive of Citi FM condemned Mr. Dogbe’s action and the claims that he has arrogated onto himself the title of “I’m an untouchable”.

He was disappointed by the fact that Mr. Dogbe has failed to apologise to the journalists and Ghanaians while the ground is fertile, saying, “If I were him, I would be quick to apologise and make my case”.

“John Mahama would have apologised. He himself is so humble that he wouldn’t have had a problem apologising for a thing like that. Mr. Dogne should do the right thing and then explain to people the circumstance,” he said.

He said Mr. Dogbe may have explanations and justification for his action but the outcome of his action “doesn’t look good on the entire presidency”.