…As CID Invites ?Daily Guide?, But Baako Refuses To Disclose Source


The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service yesterday invited the editorial team of the Daily Guide newspaper for questioning on a publication in its Tuesday, June 19, 2012 edition headlined, ?GH?51m Scandal: Woyome Drops Names.?

The editor of the newspaper, Fortune Alimi, who confirmed the police invitation to The New Crusading GUIDE, said his outfit turned down the CID ?telephone invitation,? explaining that they (Daily Guide) could only have responded had it been a formal invitation.

He said the invitation was received from the CID headquarters around 11:00 am yesterday, requesting for assistance in their (police) investigations on two publications by the paper – Saturday, June 16, 2012 and the June 19, 2012 one ? headlined, ?Kumbour Exposed Over Gun Shots? and the GH?51m scandal story mentioned above.

The Daily Guide editor indicated his difficulty with the invitation was that the cases in question were already being investigated by the police which they (police) have copies of files in that regard.

?They have conducted investigation into the matter and how can they turn round to Daily Guide to assist them in their own investigation, especially in the Kumbuor case??, he queried.

He said the police ballistic and forensic analysis report issued on the Kumbuor case underscored that the gun shots were fired from his (Kumbuor?s) own vehicle.

Fortune Alimi further stated that the publication in connection with ?Woyome dropping names? was a confirmation by the Editor-In-Chief of The New Crusading GUIDE, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, who read publicly Mr. Alfred Woyome?s statement to the police on Joy FM?s New File programme last Saturday.

Meanwhile, a civil banter ensued between Mr. Baako and two personnel from the CID headquarters who had come to the office of The New Crusading GUIDE to hunt for the ?okro mouth? who leaked Woyome?s police statement to the paper.

The two, Detective Chief Inspector Charles Adaba and Corporal Prince Gyamera sought to know from Mr. Baako who the source of the story was, but he (Editor-In-chief) said ?It?s not possible. It is a mission impossible that you are embarking on.?

Kweku Baako told the CID personnel, ?In our code of ethics as journalists, the most primary factor is to sustain and maintain confidentiality with our sources. I will go to jail rather than disclose my source; and it is not for me, the individual journalist, but for the profession. Otherwise if I did that, though I would look bad, the whole profession will be worse off eventually in the long term so that no other person in any institution, when it is so critical, can give information to a journalist or a media house. It is one of our most primary ethical requirements that we do not breach confidentiality; we do not disclose a source, unless the source itself wants to be disclosed.?

He nevertheless, commended the police for the civil manner they approached the issue, and gave the assurance that he was ever prepared to cooperate with them (police) on any investigations they would carry out with respect to the Woyome case and other matters of public interest.