The Committee on Ejura incident should apologise to the Multimedia Group and Erastus Asare Donkor - Kofi Bentil - CastinoStudios

The Committee on Ejura incident should apologise to the Multimedia Group and Erastus Asare Donkor - Kofi Bentil - CastinoStudios

The Vice President of IMANI-Africa has attributed the series of verbal abuse and threat on Luv FM journalist, Erastus Asare Donkor to the Justice Koomson, Committee investigating the Ejura clash.

Kofi Bentil speaking on this Saturday’s Newsfile on JoyNews TV, stated that the kind of questions asked by the committee created an impression as though the journalist’s report played a role in orchestrating the disturbances of Ejura.

“If you take the aspect of the Committee, I think we need to make this point that this whole media harassment started from the attitude of the Committee members themselves. I was disappointed.

“When after Erastus had gone there to assist them in the investigation and we must note that it was Erastus’ work that brought all these things into proper light otherwise we will be hearing all sorts of stories.

“He was attacked, in my view, he was put under unnecessary scrutiny as if to say defend what you have done when indeed he was assisting the committee and that led to the committee losing almost all of its respect and from there I saw political actors taking it on and pretending as if taking the shot of soldiers and police officials doing their work was the cause of the mayhem,” he stated.

Expressing his disappointment, he insisted that the Committee must apologise to The Multimedia Group and Mr Asare Donkor for bringing them into public ridicule.

According to Mr Bentil, Erastus Asare Donkor needs to be commended for his bravery effort in covering the Ejura protest amidst a chaotic scene instead of being chastised.

His comment comes as a response to the Chairman of Parliament’s Defence and Interior Committee, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong threatened Erastus Asare Donkor, over what he described as, “stupid testimony before the Committee.”

The politician was filmed on a live programme which was widely published on social media platforms, stating that, “if he [Mr Agyapong] were President, he would have ensured that Erastus Asare Donkor is beaten mercilessly.”

Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin on Tuesday referred Mr Agyapong to the Privileges Committee following his utterances.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Committee probing the Ejura clashes Justice Kingsley Koomson stated that none of Erastus’ evidence looked stupid. 

He noted that the Committee is satisfied with testimonies given by the 22 witnesses, including Luv FM’s Erastus Asare Donkor.

“Who decides what’s stupid? Who decides?  We as a Committee, we are a fact-finding Committee and we’ve not come out to say that anyone’s evidence is stupid or it’s irrelevant” he said.