#OccupyJulorBiHouse: Journalist Bridget Otoo, Others, Assaulted By Police During Protest
Bridget Otoo, a TV personality in Ghana, has spoken out about her experience at the #OccupyJulorBiHouse protest, which resulted in the arrest of more than 40 people. Several other journalists were also assaulted by members of the Ghana Police Service at the time she was attacked.
She claims that she did not break any rules by pleading for a woman whose son had been mistaken for a protester after playing basketball in the area, and subsequently arrested.
“When I got here, I heard they had been dispersed, some have been arrested so I decided to go the Accra Regional Police Station and I saw some people here," Otoo said. “A woman approached me whose son has been arrested but isn’t a protester, apparently her son came to play basketball and the police saw him around the environs of 37 Military Hospital and arrested him."
“So the woman was only asking me to help her son be granted bail for any crime he committed.” She elaborated, saying, "What did these people do that they can't be granted bail, their lawyers are there, they're not even letting them go in." She went on to say that even murderers and fraudsters in this country are granted bail.
She also recalled a police officer picking on an innocent citizen at random.
“While we were sitting there, one police officer, he would come out and pick people and assault them. You don’t need to do anything, they’ll just pick you."
“I was holding a guy’s phone, he was live on Twitter, now X and I was talking in the space because a question was asked on what was happening on the demonstration grounds."
“While I was talking and holding his phone, the police charged at us for doing absolutely nothing, attacking him. He ripped my bag and they pulled my dress and now I have a ripped dress,” she lamented.
The TV host stated in an interview with Joy News that the police were attacking not only protesters but also journalists. She claims that a reporter covering the protest at the time was also beaten by six police officers and had her phone taken.
“Yes she’s here, she’s been beaten, she was attacked inside, her phone has been seized, they have beaten her in there, six police officers attacked her, because she was filming the brutalities in there.”
She explained that the police confiscated her phone because they wanted to erase the content recorded on it to prevent it from being shared.
“Now they have taken her phone because they want to take the content that she recorded for her network,” Bridget stated.