Kumasi, Feb. 8, GNA -The Ashanti Regional branch of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has renewed its appeal to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and the Ministry of National Security to help find the killers of Mr Samuel Ennin, the former chairman of the regional association.

Addressing journalists in Kumasi on Friday to commemorate the first anniversary of the killing of Mr Ennin, Nana Yaw Osei, acting Regional Chairman of GJA, questioned the continued delay of the police to put before court the two suspects who the police claimed were behind the murder.

The press conference was attended by media practitioners clad in mourning clothes.

=81gWhy has it taken the police so long to take the matter to court when we are aware that the Attorney General=81fs Department has finished with its part of the job long ago, or is it the usual case of the police still investigating the matte,? he questioned.

Nana Osei said the association=81fs insistence on the suspects being put before court was to enable the association and the public to know whether or not the suspects were the real killers of the late Ennin and the motive for committing that heinous crime. He said since the arrest of Kwame Ayew a, who was already serving a jail term and Sherrif Kabole in April last year, most people including journalists knew that justice was going to be done. According to the acting regional chairman, Mr Frank Adu-Poku, the then Ashanti Regional Police Commander who is currently the Director of Criminal Investigations Department (CID) made the whole world aware that the police had circumstantial evidence that the two were the culprits behind the killing. He said it was taking too long for the matter to get to court adding that if the police thought they arrested wrong persons, then they could clear them of the charges and other suspects arrested=81E Nana Osei said the association would not allow the matter to die a natural death as some cases in the country. He demand that the whole justice system should get to the bottom of the matter and dig out the perpetrators for journalists in the country to go about their duties with a free conscience=81E He said arresting the perpetrators of such dastardly act would help guarantee the safety of journalists in the country. =81gWe think that the whole media establishment in the country is under serious threat and the cowards who committed that stupid act are still lurking around us to unleash such terror on the media again at their chosen time,=81h he emphasised. According to Nana Osei, the association had information which suggested that the perpetrators asked about the whereabout of M.r Ennin before they shot him, adding that there were witnesses who heard this at the scene of the crime and could be made to testify in court. He said the association has since the incident co-operated fully with the police and were very appreciative of what the police had been telling them.

He reminded Ghanaians that it was part of the constitutional duty of journalists to expose alleged wrong doings for the betterment of the society, adding that people had several legitimate avenues to seek redress if journalists made mistakes instead of taking the lives of journalists which had never solved any problem.

He said being an election year, it was incumbent on Ghanaians, irrespective of their political interests to ensure the safety of journalists in the performance of their duties and warned that political parties risked receiving a media blackout as a way of protest if the association got a credible information that a media practitioner had been physically or verbally assaulted by any member of their group. He called on media practitioners to act professionally in the performance of their duties in order to earn the respect of Ghanaians for them to be protected.