An Achimota Magistrate Court has sentenced and fined the 16 New Patriotic Party (NPP) members who overran the studios of UTV and blocked its primetime weekend entertainment programme.
According to the court, each individual is to settle an amount of GH¢2,400.
The criminals were indicted with conspiracy to perpetrate crimes and rioting. They pleaded guilty to the charges.
This comes after their attack on UTV studios on Saturday, October 7, 2023, during the live broadcast of United Showbiz.
In their belief, the programme had become a medium where the Nana Addo-led administration has always been unfairly criticised in an unskilled manner.
They further alleged that a letter from the ruling party, NPP to the management of UTV to reform the show was ripped apart on-air by musician turned-politician Kwame A Plus, a traditional panellist of the programme.
The police thereafter apprehended and prosecuted them accordingly.
Following the invasion, the National Media Commission and the Ghana Journalists Association denounced the happening.
According to the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), the deed was both “barbaric and medieval, and it is very much consistent with the building blocks in recent times to establish a state of impunity against the media, one that is worse than the infamous ‘culture of silence’.”
“We wish to inform such evil minds, both orchestrators and actors, that the media in Ghana have survived all forms of clampdown in the past, even under dictatorial regimes, and that we shall never be intimidated or silenced by any form of attack,” the communique from GJA counted.
While some party constituents had made an effort to deny the affiliation of the group to the NPP, the National Youth Organiser of the party, Salam Mustapha, substantiated that all the young fellows who overran the media outlet were known members of the party.
Granting an interview on an Accra-based radio station, Asempa FM’s political talk show “Ekosiisen” on Monday, October 9, Salam Mustapha divulged to the host Osei Bonsu [a.k.a OB], that it would be deceitful on his part to refute the association of the young men to the NPP.
He, nonetheless, elucidated that the party did not sanction the acts of the youth, comprising of constituency youth organizers and a Deputy Greater Accra Youth Organiser.
“I can’t be on this platform and claim that I don’t know them. All those in the video I know them. And I can confirm that some of them are constituency youth organisers, and one is a Deputy Regional Youth Organiser [Greater Accra]. They are the guys that I work with, and so I cannot deny their bona fide membership to the New Patriotic Party. As for that, I cannot lie on this platform. They’re NPP members that I work with, and I can state emphatically that I know them” he pointed out.
Writer’s email 📥 : edemlatsu093@gmail.com
