Family calls for investigation into Daily Telegraph Editor’s death
The one-week celebration of Bismark Bebli, the Editor of The Daily Telegraph, was held at his residence at Kasoa in the Central Region, with a call on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to investigate the circumstances surrounding his death.
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The family of the editor maintained that the death of Bismark was the result of unprofessional conduct of the Kasoa Police, who were on road checks in front of the police station on January 13, 2017.
The editor was crushed to death by an Awutu Breku bound commercial bus, known in local parlance as ‘trotro’, with registration number GE 8252-12, when he stepped out of his car after the police stopped the car he was driving for inspection about 1p.m.
Bismark was rushed to the Kasoa Polyclinic for treatment but was pronounced dead on arrival.
Brake failure disputed
While the initial cause of the accident was attributed to brake failure, a woman who claimed she was on the trotro vehicle on the day of the accident, disputed that claim.
According to the woman (who wants to remain anonymous for now), upon reaching the front of the police station, “a policeman beckoned the driver to stop and immediately jumped in the front seat of the vehicle and ordered the driver to drive to the compound of the police station but the driver resisted.
That, she narrated, resulted in a struggle between the driver and the policeman, “with the policeman directing the steering wheels into the yard.”
As the struggle between the two persisted, she said, the vehicle veered off and knocked the journalist and a policeman.
She said the police quickly moved the policeman to hospital, while the journalist was left unattended to for “a long time.”
“I believe the journalist’s life would have been saved if equal attention was given to him,” she stressed.
Widow
The wife of the late journalist, Naa Ameley Bebli, said she believed the actual facts surrounding her husband’s death were being misrepresented.
“I, therefore, appeal to the IGP, through the Ghana Journalists Asociation (GJA), to investigate the incident and let the true facts come clear,” she said.
The one-week celebration was graced by many journalists, led by the President of the GJA, Mr Affail Monney, members of the Assemblies of God Church, representatives of non-governmental organisations and well-wishers.