Meanwhile, the Media Foundation for West Africa, has also strongly condemned the attack on the journalists.<\/p>\n
The Foundation\u2019s Executive Director, Sulemana Braimah, told Citi News<\/strong>\u00a0that the party\u2019s continuous silence on the matter will only encourage the hooligans.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a matter that does not require a party having a meeting before it condemns the action. I think if this goes as it is now without any statement, apology, without any actions taken against the security people who did that, it will only further the culture of impunity, the culture of thuggery that we are witnessing in this country, and it will be extremely unfortunate. The people who abused these journalists are private security people at the party\u2019s headquarters. And our expectation is that, at least the party will make a statement and perhaps take an action that will demonstrate to everyone including party security people that people including journalists who seek to engage with the party or make information happening within the premises know.<\/p>\n \u201cThe right thing to do is not to beat them, the right thing to do is not to attack them, so all that we are calling for is for the party to come up with something that will clearly state its position that it does not tolerate some of these actions. But if goes quiet, it means it is justifying whatever these party people did.\u201d<\/p>\n How it happened<\/strong><\/p>\n Following up on hints of an ongoing protest at the party\u2019s national headquarters in Accra, the reporters headed there last Thursday to follow up on latest developments.<\/p>\n Upon their arrival, scores of the party\u2019s members, numbering about 200 from the Ellembelle Constituency in the Western Region, had besieged the headquarters demanding a clean register ahead of the party\u2019s internal elections in January 2018.<\/p>\n Whilst filming the happenings, they were attacked by about six well-built men who are security guards at the party\u2019s head office.<\/p>\n GhanaWeb\u2019s cameraman was slapped, thrown on the ground and kicked mercilessly by the \u2018macho\u2019 men.<\/p>\n When the issue was reported to the NPP Deputy General Secretary, Sam Payne upon his arrival at the scene, he retorted that, \u201cno one asked him [the reporter] to come and film\u201d and walked away.<\/p>\n Efforts by onlookers and the protesters were simply insufficient to calm the anger and energy with which the security guards were manhandling the cameraman.<\/p>\n TV3\u2019s reporter earned slaps, after which his phones and other equipment were seized.<\/p>\n Citi FM\u2019s reporter was also attacked by a female party loyalist and the \u2018macho\u2019 men. Her spectacles were broken, whereas her phones and bag were seized. She later was given back her items.<\/p>\n The Ellembelle protesters, who tried protecting the journalists, were also attacked.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Marian Ansah\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Several days after some journalists were assaulted by security guards of the governing New Patriotic Party [NPP], at the party’s headquarters in Accra, the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), is calling on the leadership of the NPP to ensure that the culprits are brought to book. The GJA, in a statement, vehemently condemned the attack and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":244345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[4330,3,214,3097,56],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Ghanaweb-guy.jpg\")