Joy FM’s investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni has been flown outside Ghana after he became target of death threats.
The threats come after he produced a documentary titled ‘militia in the heart of the nation,’ which revealed the presence of pro-government militia force working at the former seat of government, Christiansborg Castle.
The founder of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Professor Kwame Karikari, who made the shocking revelation, said that Manasseh spent most part of March and April this year running and hiding from unknown identities.
He noted that the threats became alarming, forcing his employers to fly him out of the country to protect him from harm.
“In most of March and APril this year, the very well known and respected investigative journalist of Multimedia fame Manasseh Azure Awuni spent virtually all of March and April this year running and hiding from rogue elements of unknown indentities who were burnt on campaign to murder him,” he said.
Prof. Karikari continued: “At first, Manasseh’s employers kept moving him from hiding place to hiding place.
“The police came in to provide him bodyguards for protection during the day.
“Even this was not enough. The threat got so unbearable the media Foundation for West Africa had to step in to find refuge or save heaven for him in a foreign country.”
The militia group Manasseh uncovered, De-Eye Group, on its website which has been pull down, said they are a security company that provide among other things VIP protection.
Government officials described the group as job seekers but admitted the group shouldn’t have been given access to the Christainborg Castle for private use.
The group has since sued Manasseh and Joy FM over the documentary. The government has also boycotted Joy FM.
De-Eye says the documentary’s claim that it is operating a militia group with the complicity of the ruling New Patriotic Party is slanderous and defamatory and was made without any reasonable or just cause.
The company is also asking for an injunction against the further airing of the video documentary, as well as an order directed at Multimedia and Manasseh to retract the publication of the documentary and render an unqualified apology.
An Accra High Court last week granted an application by lawyers for De Eye Group to serve Manasseh by substitution.
This was after bailiffs failed to serve him with the writ of summons insisting, he has evaded service on more than 4 occasions.
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Pulse Ghana
