Rita Atanga, the District Chief Executive for Bongo, on October 16, 2024, lodged a complaint against a Dreamz FM’s journalist, who was filming the dehumanizing circumstances schoolchildren learn under.
The journalist, Abdul-Gafaru Salifu was at the Kodorigo Primary and JHS at Zorko filming pupils, some of whom lie on their bellies on the bare floors to learn due to inadequate furniture.
Few minutes into the recording, the Assemblymember for the Kodorigo Electoral Area, Stephen Alazoe who had accompanied him to the school, received a call from someone, he didn’t disclose, who complained about the timing of the journalist’s activities there.
The caller could be heard saying it was a political season and that putting out such content could mar the electoral fortunes of the governing New Patriotic (NPP) in the December 7 elections.
Few minutes after the call dropped, another call came from police officers, who had been deployed to “invite” the journalist for questioning over his activities at the school.
According to the two officers, who arrived in a patrol vehicle at the Kodorigo Chief Palace, the journalist was being invited for questioning following a complaint by the DCE about his filming of the harsh conditions under which the pupils learn.
The officers told him they were instructed to accompany him to the station but the reporter declined going with them and insisted he would have to report back to his superiors before honouring their “invitation”.
After a back and forth, they put a phone call to the Bongo District Commander, who also attempted to persuade the journalist to follow his men to the station.
But Abdul-Gafaru did not budge and challenged them to arrest him if he had acted unlawfully.
The police eventually backed down on their quest to take the journalist along with them to the police station on the back of the Kodorigo chief’s intervention.
Later when Abdul-Gafaru, on his own, went to the police station in the company of his colleague, James Nana Tsiquaye, the District Commander confirmed that the DCE, Rita Atanga lodged the complaint but stated that there was no case against the reporter.
He explained that, while he understood that the journalist was there discharging his constitutional mandate, he and his men needed to take action once a complaint had been filed.
