The President of the Republic, Nana Akufo-Addo has said that, it’s unfortunate that the murderers of investigative Journalist, Ahmed Suale, have not been apprehended yet.
Speaking to a delegation from the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA), the President intimated that, the Ghana Police Service and the CID have worked tirelessly on the case and yet there hasn’t been any positive results.
“Unfortunately for us, despite a widespread effort made by the Police and the CID, we’ve still have not been able to lay hands on the perpetuators of Suale’s death.”
President Akufo-Addo
President Akufo-Addo, is worried that even though Ahmed Suale was a Journalist, the cause of his death has still not been identified three years after his murder.
“It is unfortunate. So, even though he is a journalist, we still don’t know why he was killed, whether because of the work he was doing or other matters,” He said.
The President underscored the importance of the safety of Journalists to Press freedom. He said that, the safety of media people must be made “sacrosanct from agencies of the state.”
“The safety of journalists in Ghana has to be considered as sacrosanct; sacrosanct from members of the community, sacrosanct from agencies of the state and we must live in a country where journalists have to feel safe to go about their work because the work they do for the country and the community is extremely important.”
President Akufo-Addo
Mr. Kwabena Dwumfour, the President of the GJA asked the President to take a strong stance against the brutality of Journalists to ensure that, Journalist are protected in the course of their duties.
“We are however, concerned about the increasing rate of attacks on the media and Journalists which contributes significantly to the worsening performance of Ghana in the World Press Freedom Index. We believe that adding your voice to the condemnation of such attacks will curb the impunity.”
Kwabena Dwumfour, GIJ President
Mr. Dwumfour mentioned that, on 2nd November, 2022, the GJA will launch ‘the Journalist Support Fund (JSF)’ to mark the International Day to end impunity and crimes against Journalists.
About Ahmed Suale’s Murder
Ahmed Hussein-Suale was an investigative Journalist with Tiger Eye PI who was shot by some gunmen on Wednesday, January 16, 2019 in his neighborhood.
Suale was part of the Tiger Eye PI team that put together the ‘Number-12’ documentary. The documentary was a landmark exposé on corruption in Ghana football.
Three years on, and Ghana Police has still not apprehended the culprits of the crime.
However, investigations are still ongoing and hopefully, the culprits will be apprehended soon.
President Akufo-Addo has on many occasions expressed his readiness to deal with the perpetrators of the crime. At University of Cape Coast in May last year for example, he said, “I could not have made it any clearer that the government has no interest in covering up whatever might be or whoever might be involved.”
Meanwhile, in the 2022 edition of the World Press Freedom Index, Ghana placed 60th from a previous 30th position. Ghana’s current position is her worse ranking in nearly two decades.
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