Techiman radio journalist remanded for causing fear and panic

A Techiman circuit court in the Brong-Ahafo Region presided over by Alexandra Graham, has remanded a journalist with Winners Fm, 98.5MHZ Techiman, Iddrisu Awudu, into police custody to re-appear on June 28, 2017 for causing fear and panic on air in the Techiman municipality on June 12, 2017.

The radio station, which belongs to a former deputy minister of education and Member of Parliament (MP) for Techiman North, Alex Kyeremeh, has subsequently sacked the journalist – Iddrisu Awudu aka Mighty Judas – who is the general manager and ‘morning show’ host of the station.

The court in the same case also issued a bench warrant for the arrest of a second accused person, Mark Abbrey, who is the managing editor of the Techiman Times. He has been accused of re-publishing the said allegations of the first accused.

Mr Mark Abbrey, who was hospitalized on the day of the court sitting, was not present in person. Thus, the bench warrant was issued to prevent him from running away from his hospital bed.

Prosecuting Detective Inspector, M. Diboro told the court that on 12 June, 2017, Iddrisu Awudu went on air and announced that he knew of murderers who had invaded the Techiman municipality and had kidnapped and murdered eight persons so he was ready to furnish the police with information to the supposed murderers’ hideouts. Mr Mark Abbrey also recorded the said falsehood and caused it to be published in the Techiman Times.

In addition, the accused persons also alleged on another day that they saw somebody who kidnapped a child, riding on a motorbike to Tanoso, a suburb of Techiman.

These pronouncements, according to the police, caused fear and panic in the municipality, making parents and teachers rush to the divisional police headquarters to ascertain the authenticity of the announcements. It made some parents to rush to schools to take their children on the said dates. When the police invited the two journalists to help in investigations, they refused to honour the invitation. This put the police in the Techiman municipality in a bad light and so the two were arrested and charged with causing fear and panic and arraigned before court.

Though the accused persons hired a lawyer, their lawyer could not attend proceedings but asked permission to appear later.