GJA condemns attack on journalist in Tamale during Bawumia's NR tour

The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has condemned an attack on a Tamale-based journalist by persons suspected to be NPP fanatics during the Northern Regional Tour of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the flagbearer of the NPP.

The GJA said it is disheartening and dispiriting that people still resort to such archaic and primitive acts of violence as a means of seeking redress in a modern and civilized society.

Dokurugu Abubakar Ndeeya, a journalist with Zaa Multimedia, was physically assaulted on Thursday, May 16, 2024, while attempting to video record an altercation between some NPP supporters and a police officer just outside the premises of the media house, which shares a boundary with the Modern City Hotel, the venue where the NPP flagbearer was holding a series of public events.

During the attack, which was captured on tape, a group of young men dressed in NPP colours chased the journalist before pouncing on him to brutally assault him.

The incident happened in the presence of police and military personnel who looked on. It took the intervention of some bystanders to save the life of the journalist.

"I was going about my normal duty as a journalist when I saw two young men carrying another person who appeared to have collapsed. They put him in a pickup vehicle to be sent to the hospital, and then I saw a group of NPP supporters in a scuffle with a police officer. I found it newsworthy, so I started filming, and then they pounced on me and started beating me. The group was suspected to be NPP supporters who came to grace the Vice President's visit," he told this reporter.

Ndeeya sustained bruises to his face.

The Northern Regional Chairman of the GJA, Yakubu Abdul-Majeed, in a statement, called on the Northern Regional Police Command to "employ all legitimate means at their disposal to apprehend the culprits behind this assault on our colleague and ensure they face the full consequences of the law."