General News of Friday, 24 August 2012

Source: Daily Guide

National Security Chases Daily Guide

The National Security apparatus is on the heels of the Daily Guide GUIDE as it restarts a process to have one of the newspaper’s security officers, Michael Awampaga, jailed in a matter in which the principal character has already been freed by an Accra High Court.

Michael Awampaga, it would be recalled, accompanied a Daily Guide GUIDE photographer, Gifty Lawson, to the Human Rights Court in Accra to take the photograph of DSP Gifty Mawunyega Tehoda but was attacked by Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) operatives and taken away to its headquarters.

The decision to have two security officers of the company accompany the lady to the court was because an earlier attempt to take DSP Tehoda’s photograph outside a courtroom resulted in a near assault by a family member of the DSP who was in court over the cocaine-turning soda story.

As the female photographer was in the process of taking a shot of the police officer, a BNI operative pounced upon her and when the Daily Guide security officer tried to protect her, the BNI operative turned his anger on him and even pulled his firearm. Both of them were arrested and whisked away to the BNI headquarters.

Gifty Lawson, the photographer, was assaulted by the operatives who probed her private part an action which provoked public anger. Gifty was later released, but Michael Awampaga was detained for a while.

A few days ago, Michael Awampaga, who lost his father recently in Paga, had a call from a certain Samuel Darko inviting him to court.

When he told the prosecutor that he was not in town and was attending his father’s funeral, the gentleman rescheduled the court date to 23rd August 2012.

When Daily Guide called Samuel Darko, the prosecutor, he advised Michael Awampaga to have his counsel write to the court stating why he is unable to turn up at court.

“The complainant called about 30 minutes and I confirmed the date to him. This is the first appearance and it would not augur well for him not to show up,” he said about the seeming inability of Michael Awampaga to turn up in court.

Soon after the detention of Michael Awampaga, National Security Coordinator Gbevlo-Lartey was on air explaining the issue and his insistence to have the DAILY GUIDE staff dealt with.