Angry Lawyer Unhappy With Daily Graphic Over Cocaine Story

A legal Practitioner based in Sunyani, the Brong Ahafo Regional capital, Lawyer Kwasi Kamkam Boadu, and a Lawyer for Sakina Mustapha, a 23-year-old woman who was alleged to have attempted to smuggle a substance suspected to be Cocaine to an inmate at the Sunyani Prisons says the headline given to the story by the Daily Graphic Newspaper, was misleading and unethical.

A 23-year-old trader, Sakina Mustapha, was arrested by the Police for attempting to smuggle a substance suspected to be cocaine to an inmate at the Sunyani Prisons.

According to the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Prisons, Assistant Superintendent of Prisons (ASP), Johann Nii Narh Nartey, the suspect believed to be a member of a notorious drug syndicate terrorizing residents in the area, was arrested on Monday at the Sunyani Central Prison with the substance.

He explained that Sakina was apprehended at the Sunyani Prison Barracks after she paid a visit to a prisoner in custody, Taufik Mohammed, who is serving a ten (10) year jail term with hard labour for narcotic drug offence.

He added that the initial demeanour of both convict and visitor appeared normal at the initial stages of the visit, but the interaction aroused suspicion at the latter stage and so both of them were put under strict surveillance.

ASP Nartey continued that, Sakina was later seen hanging around at the barracks in anxiety after the visit, and was subsequently invited into the prison where a search was conducted on her, and Ninety nine (99) pieces of substances suspected to be cocaine wrapped in cigarette foil were found in her purse.

Speaking in an interview with SPACE FM, Lawyer Kamkam Boadu said the caption given to the story at the front page of the Daily Graphic on Thursday, 12th, January 2017 violated the professionalism and ethics of the journalism.

He said, by law, Daily Graphic has erred because according to the country’s Criminal Code, there is a portion, which quotes 'no one is deemed a criminal unless convicted by a competent Court of Jurisdiction' and not any media court of Graphic .

"Ghana is a country of rule of law and not the rule of men," he angrily stated.

He added that Daily Graphic could have captioned their headline as a substance suspected to be cocaine and not what they put it out there in their newspaper yesterday.

Lawyer Kamkam Boadu who once workded with the state broadcaster, urged media practitioners to be circumspect when putting out their stories for public consumption.