The Chief of Staff, Mr Julius Debrah is reported to have taken up the case in which, Mr Stan Xoese Dogbe, a Presidential Staffer is said to have attacked a journalist, seized a voice recorder and destroyed it.
A member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) legal team, Mr Abraham Amaliba who made this known said the Chief of Staff was interested in the case because, "the incident was deemed to have put the name of the presidency into disrepute", TV3, a television station based in Accra has reported.
According to the television station, Mr Amaliba made the Chief of Staff's motives known whilst speaking on the programme, New Day on Wednesday morning.
“This morning [Wednesday], there is going to be a meeting on this matter,”Amaliba was quoted as saying during the newspaper review segment on the show. He, ho
Mr Dogbe, who is responsible for handling communications at the Presidency was reported to have destroyed the voice recorder of Yahaya Kuamoah, a reporter with the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) whom he accused of recording a private conversation.
The incident was said to have happened at the 37 Military Hospital where victims of the presidential press corps accident which killed one journalist, Samuel Nuamah and injured others on August 20, 2015 had been taken to for medical attention.
The GBC reporter was said to be eavesdropping on a conversation between Mr Dogbe and the Communications Minister, Dr Edward Omane Boamah on how to break the news of the death of the late Nuamah to his family; something that was said to have prompted the attack.
Mr Amaliba in his submissions on the programme on the television station noted that in as much as the GBC journalist, Yahaya Kuamoah, might have acted “unprofessionally”, the reaction of Stan Dogbe was "unacceptable".
“He (the journalist) might have treaded on wrong lines but I don’t think the outcome was to attack and break his recorder,” he said.
He disagreed with Mr. Samuel Atta-Mensah, a media practitioner who was also on the show and asked Mr Dogbe to apologise, and offer explanation in the case if there was any.
Mr Amaliba argued that the issue of apology was an individual decision, hence wouldn’t want to take what he called the “high moral ground to tell somebody to apologise”.
To him, since it is allowed that a victim and a perpetrator could come into agreement to settle their differences, particularly in a misdemeanour case, there is nothing wrong for Mr Dogbe and the journalist to settle the case.
Responding, Mr. Atta- Mensah described the intervention by the Chief of Staff as a waste of time since there are more important issues for the Chief of Staff to work on.
He said considering Mr Dogbe’s experience in the media, he should know better and apologise for his action that has received wide condemnation from the Ghanaians including the Media Foundation for West Africa.
Mr Atta- Mensah who is the Chief Executive of Citi FM condemned Mr. Dogbe’s action and the claims that he has arrogated onto himself the title of “I’m an untouchable”.
He was disappointed by the fact that Mr. Dogbe has failed to apologise to the journalists and Ghanaians while the ground is fertile, saying, “If I were him, I would be quick to apologise and make my case”.
“John Mahama would have apologised. He himself is so humble that he wouldn’t have had a problem apologising for a thing like that. Mr. Dogbe should do the right thing and then explain to people the circumstance,” he said.
He said Mr. Dogbe may have explanations and justification for his action but the outcome of his action “doesn’t look good on the entire presidency”.
