An online reporter who attended the funeral of the late Chief of Pomadze in the Central Region, Nana Apata Kofi IV yesterday February 12 narrowly escaped lynching at the hands of some angry youth of the town and the brutality of military officers present at the funeral as he was betrayed by a colleague journalist who branded the online reporter as a secret agent who had come to report negative stories about the sitting Chief, Nana Apata Kofi V.
It all happened when the Chief, Nana Apata Kofi organized a group of reporters at his residence to brief them about the state of development of an impasse between him and some members of his family who are bent to destool him, for reasons best known to themselves.
The online reporter who was also present at the time joined the fray of reporters who were openly recording the statement by the Chief.
But just after the briefing, one of the reporters whose identity and media house was not immediately know but is believed to be from a radio station either in Kasoa or Accra started shouting at the top of his voice, asking the online reporter who gave him authority to record the Chief, as according to him, the online reporter is not part of the reporters who the Chief had contracted to publish his side of the story relating to the impasse between him and the other members of his family.
The action by the pot-bellied ‘Judas’ journalist amidst shouting attracted some youth of the town who stormed the residence and threatened to teach the online reporter a bitter lesson of his life, but it took the timely intervention of a reporter from BRYT FM and another colleague reporter who stepped in and warned the youth to refrain from their intended action, as the online reporter is a known senior colleague doing his legitimate work, all to the amazement of the other colleague journalists present, including a reporter from Adom FM who were dump-founded by the actions of the pot-bellied ‘Judas’ journalist.
As if not satisfied by the turn of events, the pot-bellied ‘Judas’ journalist further threatened to make sure that the online reporter is disciplined by the military officers present, and therefore went and called them in, but upon series of interrogation, the online reporter claimed he has a long time relation with the Chief as he has covered series of stories relating to the the celebration of the Akwambo festival of the town and published them in The Moment Newspaper.
He recalled an instance where the Chief, Nana Apata Kofi asked some members of the family to conduct the reporters who had come to cover one of such festivals around the new police station which was then under construction, in the company of the Agona Swedru-based reporter and cameraman for TV3, Lucy Ayambilla and Eric Sam, the then newscaster of Golden Star FM, the late Nkansah Deduam, the Ghana News Agency reporter Kojo Essuon, Fiifi Davies who was then reporting for Peace FM and Mawuli Agbey of the Daily Graphic as well as the online reporter himself.
This, he said, was at a time when ace musician Akosua Agyapong was invited as a special guest to grace the occasion.
The reporter further recalled doing a profile of the history of the people of the town on the request of the Chief when he was sent to the place of the early settlers called Dadawdo around the 19th Century before moving to their present place, Pomadze.
All these the Chief said he does not recollect, as it has been a couple of years ago, but however warned the youth not to attempt to manhandle the reporter in his house.
A spokesperson of the Chief, one Mr. Kofi Forson who the reporter recalled inviting him to his house in the company of the GNA reporter Kojo Esuon and the late Nkansah Deduam during one of such festivals also denied knowing the reporter, leaving him to his fate in the hands of the military officers.
After holding the reporter hostage for close to thirty minutes, the military men decided to escort him out to avoid the vengeance of the instigated youth.
But still seemed not satisfied, the pot-bellied ‘Judas’ journalist who was bent on ensuring that the online reporter is dealt with by the military officers insisted that the online reporters phone be flashed so as to delete every information on it.
This was met by fierce resistance by the reporter who contended that his phone contains files with vital informations, pictures, videos and other documents that relates to his work, but the military officers who then had custody of the phone flashed it, thereby deleting every documents and file on it.
By: Robert Ayanful