'Accident Blown Out Of Proportion'  

The Dean of the Presidential Press Corps, Nutor Bibini Nutor has noted that the accident involving 20 journalists who report from the presidency has been exaggerated.

He said accidents happen all the time and that last Thursday's accident was simply one of them.

The Ghanaian Times newspaper's Presidential Correspondent, Samuel Nuamah, died in the accident which happened at Dawhenya in the Greater Accra Region.

The journalists were returning from the Volta Regional capital, Ho, where President Mahama had attended a programme organised by the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

Most of the injured journalists who were sent to the 37 Military Hospital for treatment have been discharged.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has called for an immediate probe into the handling of the president's press team.

Its Executive Director, Sulemana Braimah, has questioned the quality of due diligence conducted before the vehicle was hired for the presidential reporters.

'Somebody must provide some answers. I believe that there are people at the presidency whose job it is to facilitate the movement of people and how the presidential press corps carries out its duties and such a person should be able to provide answers with regard to why they had to go for a hired vehicle.

'What is important is the kind of protocol the vehicle went through before it was hired,' he added.

President of the Ghana Journalists' Association (GJA), Affail Monney, also said the association would demand answers from the presidency this week on the circumstances which led to the accident.

'We are overly concerned about the issue surrounding the death of one of our own, Samuel Nuamah. We were told that the bus was not suitable from this kind of assignment and we heard from one of our colleagues that the driver was speeding.

'These are issues worth probing and we have called a meeting with the Chief of Staff and these questions will be raised and answers will be demanded from the appropriate quarters,' he said.

But reacting to the issues, the Dean of the Presidential Press Corps said on MultiTV that the accident was not a domestic one that one would say could have been prevented.

'This is a road accident. I'm sure before you sit in your car, you check your engine, you check your fuel level, you check your water level, you think everything is fine with your battery, you pray to God and you move but what God wills is what will happen,' Mr. Bibini stated.

'This is just one of those accidents,' he stressed.