JoyNews reporter Carlos Carlony has recounted a distressing experience in which he was physically assaulted by military operatives who forced Daniel McKorley, the CEO of McDan Group, along with three others, to kneel at gunpoint during a demolition exercise in Accra. The incident occurred while Carlos and his crew were covering the demolition of a warehouse allegedly owned by McDan when heavily armed National Security operatives stormed the site.
“In fact, I was punched. At that point, the CEO of McDan Group and his three associates were ordered to kneel. They were kneeling at gunpoint,” Carlos revealed on The Pulse on JoyNews. The journalist explained that the soldiers believed he had filmed the scene and turned their attention to him and an eyewitness present at the time. “We tried to capture that moment but couldn’t, so we left it. However, they thought we had recorded the moment when McDan, the CEO, was kneeling with his three associates. Meanwhile, this eyewitness was also being beaten by other military personnel.”
Carlos said the military operatives accused the group of interfering in a “lawful demolition,” although McDan himself denied being shown any official documents justifying the operation. “The initial conversation I heard was that they were being charged for interfering in the lawful demolition. But when we spoke to the CEO, he said they were yet to see any official document from those carrying out the demolition,” Carlos recounted.
Shortly after the confrontation, Carlos was arrested and taken to a National Security facility along with McDan and the others. He says he was later released and driven back to the scene under military escort. “They gave me a pickup with three military personnel back to the scene. They drove me back to pick my vehicle,” he said. However, even upon return, Carlos says he was subjected to further scrutiny.
“I had my driver’s phone with me, and they demanded to check the visuals on his phone. I had to call the driver to give me the password. Seven armed men stood there while we unlocked and searched the phone.” The same process was repeated at the National Security office.
“They went through my phones… they really didn’t want me to capture the moment where the CEO was kneeling, which was, I don’t know, a bit demeaning, because guns were pointed at him and his people.”
Source: Myjoyonline.com
