The Ghana Armed Forces has denied media reports its men together with officers of the National Security have locked up offices of the De-Eye, the controversial private security company that operated at the Castle.

A statement signed by the Director of Public Relations of the GAF, Colonel Emmanuel Aggrey Quarshie described the report as “false.”

According to him, no officer of the military had been assigned the job of closing down offices of De-Eye and expressed surprise at the report.

This is the latest twist in what has become a controversy between government on one hand and Joy FM a private media house on another over a security company said to be operating illegally at the Castle, which used to be the former seat of government.

Documentary

On Thursday, Joy News aired a documentary in which persons said to private militia affiliated to the governing New Patriotic Party was operating without a license at the Castle.

In an undercover report, Manasseh Azure Awuni captured scenes of the security men and women in their various activities.

They were captured offering security services at the Accra International Conference Center  during a programme organized by the NPP to honour one of its members.

The president Nana Akufo-Addo and other leading members of the NPP were present at that programme.

The documentary attracted national attention both traditional and social media with government dismissing the content of the documentary.

Misrepresentation

Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said the report was a complete “misrepresentation.”

According to him, government had been informed about the operations of the De-Eye at the Castle and had taken steps to stop them in October 2018.

He also claimed that contrary to report that the Castle was a security zone, it was not especially after the government had decided to turn the place into a museum.

But Joy News insisted, the comments by government could not be true because the last filiming at the Castle was done in January 2019.

The station also stated it was in December 2018 that the group had provided the security services to the programme in which the president attended and they had used the Castle as their point of departure and convergence. That could not have happened if the operations of the group had been stopped in October.

In the wake of the disagreement between Joy and the government a report suggested men from the Ghana Armed Forces as well as the national security had moved in to close the offices of the De Eye shortly after Joy FM aired its report.

But the Armed Forces had debunked the claim.

The following is the full statement;

The attention of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has been drawn to a Ghanaweb.com story with the above headline on Friday 8 March 2019. The story which was sourced from Myjoyonline.com alleged some officials from the Jubilee House in the company of soldiers have gone to lock up the offices of the De-Eye Group.

GAF wishes to state categorically that it has not deployed any soldier to the Osu Castle for the stated purpose. Indeed no soldier has been assigned to follow any official to the former seat of Government for such an activity. This allegation is completely false.

Once again, we wish to urge the media to be circumspect in their reportage on the GAF at all times. The office of the Director of Public Relations is always open to the media to cross check their stories before they put them out.

SIGNED

E. AGGREY QUASHIE
Colonel
Director Public Relations