Attack on Latif Iddrisu at Police HQ was targeted – Source

On March 27th, 2018, one of Ghana’s investigative journalists, and arguably the foremost reporter whose work exposed and revealed the devastation caused by the highly networked illegal mining enterprise was brutally assaulted by law enforcement officials. That attack has for the past six years left the journalist with a fractured skull and the complications that come with it.

Latif Iddrisu, a very smart, daring, and highly competent multiple award-winning journalist with the Multimedia Group, was brutally assaulted by Police officers at their national headquarters just for doing his work. He was battered, left with a bloodied mouth, swollen face, and a fractured skull. The cascading effects of the fractured skull almost obliterated the promising career of the young journalist.

Latif is a passionate journalist who risked his life by going to dangerous mining zones to report illegal mining operations in Ghana’s forests and water sources. He wanted nothing but the best for his country. On the surface of it, one would think he was caught by a stray bullet’. Or so was the story when it was first reported hours after the incident.

In fact, the journalist himself, in the heat of the moment probably believed the unwarranted attack might be a case of unprofessionalism by the perpetrators. But after years of inaction on the part of the Ghana police service who right from the outset came out to defend their men, and went even further to publicly say that their CCTV didn’t capture any such incident, the then minister of the interior who publicly apologized and gave a deceptive promise to get to the bottom of the attack, many are beginning to believe what was initially considered to be farfetched; that the attack on Latif was not by accident.

People familiar with the attack and who want to remain anonymous, have told JSI that Latif had prior to the attack, been in the ‘black books’ of kingpins in the highly networked illegal mining industry for his constant detailed and critical reportage on the menace. The kingpins according to sources within the security service, considered such reports by the journalist as detrimental to the survival of their businesses. What makes it more believable that powerful forces were behind the brutal assault on Latif Iddrisu, is the recent twist and damning incriminating report by the former minister of the Environment who spearheaded the so-called fight against the illegal mining menace. A report that shook the foundation of power in Ghana. That report revealed how influential people walking the corridors of power in the government of Ghana, hijacked, invested, and benefited from the illegal mining industry. The same men who spoke with a straight face and pretended to be fighting the illegality when the news cameras and lights were turned on.

The source told JSI that “his (Latif’s) investigative report that exposed mining activities in the Western region town of Samraboi didn’t go down with some powerful miners. They therefore plotted against him by notifying their men in uniform to deal with him”. He further added, “On that day, he (Latif) only found himself in the lions’ den without knowing it”.

Though reports on illegal mining in Ghana haven’t stopped since the unfortunate attack on Latif, however, the depth and contextualization of the phenomenon have drastically reduced. Public interest has also mainly been lethargic because the journalist who gunered a huge following and was considered by many as a torchbearer in that space has been silenced even as he tries to come back. The journalist has since 2019 been in and out of a referral hospital and a Specialist facility in the US state of California for treatment and therapy with the hope of getting back to normalcy. And for more than half a decade since the assault, and after several adjournments at the court where he is seeking justice, the slow-paced trial is nowhere near conclusion.

The journalist who spoke with JSI mentioned how he has “depleted all his savings to pay for the medical bills” which has been in part supported by his employer. He continues to seek justice at the court, justice that appears to be grinding even slower. JSI urges the police to do the needful by at least assisting the journalist in paying for his medical bills and other needs while going through the treatment. The court is also encouraged to fast-track the trial and deliver judgment on the case.

The revelation by our source in the security service points to how far influential people walking the corridors of power will go to stifle freedom of expression and writing. That has to stop. If not, impunity will become the order of the day.