General News of Saturday, 6 August 2011

Source: The Herald

Daily Guide Sodomy Cover Up Exposed

Grandmother of the 12-year-old boy whose anus was cruelly raided by a worker of Daily Guide has accused the management of the newspaper of only interested in safeguarding their reputation but not the welfare of the victim, named as Senyo.

Paulina Dovi Zonyra yesterday told The Herald’s undercover reporters that the management of Western Publications, owners of Daily Guide, sent emissary to their Nima Roundabout residence in Accra, asking them to shut up because any disclosure from the family could negatively affect the company’s reputation, including the Daily Guide.

The dastardly act, according to the old lady, has since left Senyo with a shattered, painfully bleeding anus, despite getting him medical attention at the Police Hospital.

She spoke to The Herald in the family’s rented chamber-and-hall apartment in an area called Kenkey House, near the Saint Kizito Catholic Church.

She revealed that the Daily Guide emissary came and took notes of the boy’s account of the horrific event.

The abominable act is said to have happened in a bathroom of a dilapidated house bought by the media baron, Mr. Freddie Blay, for a radio station, which Daily Guide workers are now calling “Radio Sodomy,” as the venue of the act has silently been nicknamed “Sodomy House”.

Madam Zonyra, who appears to be in mid-sixties, told the paper that her grandson screams pain when he visits toilet, and has huge volumes of blood mixed with his feaces. He could hardly also sit down on chair.

Senyo’s mother is called Christine Lolonyo Zonyra. She roasts plantain for sale opposite the Nima Police Station. Death took away Senyo’s father recently, leaving the poor woman with three handsome boys, including Senyo, to look after, all alone. Lolonyo yesterday abandoned her plantain roasting business to chase the police to investigate the matter.

In the company of her brother, Anthony Zonyra, Lolonyo yesterday spent hours at the Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOSSU) office of the Police Service at the Ministries Police Station, which has taken over the case from the Nima Police.

At the time of going to press, The Herald was informed that CID operatives yesterday stormed the Daily Guide office to enquire into the case. They had a long meeting with Mrs. Gina Blay and Fortune Alimi, the Managing Editor and the Editor of the Daily Guide respectively.

What is shocking is that none of the newspapers being published by Western Publications, especially Daily Guide, tried to publish the sexual brutality, ironically it was busily reporting on Bishop Daniel Obinim’s admission that he had had sexual intercourse with the wife of one of his junior pastors, William Fobih.

It is not clear yet whether the denial by the ex-First Deputy Speaker of Parliament and Member of Parliament for Ellembelle, Mr. Blay, that Ohene, who committed the act, is not his nephew and that he does not know him. It also not clear whether the denial is part of grand ploy to distance the company and the Daily Guide from any blame.

But The Herald’s visit to “Sodomy House” revealed that it is presently being used as a warehouse for some materials used to print Daily Guide, News One, Young Blazers Business Guide, among other newspapers like the Accra Mail and the Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko’s Statesman Newspapers.

Meanwhile, details dug out by The Herald suggest that the media baron, Mr. Blay, has not been truthful with the public on the accounts of the sodomy incident in the offices of Daily Guide, last week Wednesday.

The Herald gathered that Ohene, who committed the act, and believed to be hiding either in Takoradi or the Ellembelle Constituency of the Western Region, is among a group of boys living in the Sodomy House.

Ohene and colleagues work for Daily Guide, and run errands, including washing for the politician. This implies that Mr. Blay, a politician who pays attention to details, knows Ohene – the anus raider – very well.

Senyo’s grandmother said, Ohene, after the act which happened in the night, chased the boy up to his house with two bicycles, in attempt to bribe him not to reveal his ordeal.

When he entered the victim’s mother’s room, Ohene sat in the only sofa there watching the almost naked mother of Senyo, who had a very tiring day sleeping. According to his grandmother, she quickly woke the boy’s mother up from her sleep, to see Ohene.

When she questioned him about what he was doing in her room, Ohene threatened to deal with her if she did not shut up. Apprehensive, the poor lady dashed out of the house and went to the Nima Police station to report his presence there. However, by the time the police arrived, Ohene had fled the room, leaving behind one of the bicycles which the police are using as exhibit.

Ohene has since not been seen in the area. However, insiders tell The Herald that Daily Guide has CCTV cameras on its premises and these could be used to get images of Ohene, the runaway anus raider, for a possible arrest.

Meanwhile, the Media Analysts Group (MAG), a pressure body with links to the National Democratic Congress (NDC), is calling on all the human rights groups and women’s advocacy groups to take interest in the sodomy case in Freddie Blay’s Daily Guide office.

This, according to the group, will ensure that the politician does not use “whatever influence he has to shield the criminal act of his nephew,” Ohene.

A press release copied to The Herald said that it is “shock and dismay, the very factual story about Freddie Blay, ex-First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, and former MP for Ellembele, turning the offices of Daily Guide into a Sodomy Academy where the backsides of innocent infants are destroyed”. The release was signed by Alfred Kojo Triddles and Albert Kojo Yeboah.

It noted that “Freddie Blay, who was recently appointed Advisor to NPP flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo, would find it hard to convince well-meaning persons that he is not an accomplice to the gruesome sodomy acts that have been taking place in the offices of Daily Guide, leading to the destruction of the anus of an innocent young boy whose mother is on the verge of losing her mind because of what has happened to her son”.

It is a matter of fact that a certain Ohene, who is Freddie Blay’s nephew, is on the run, after destroying the anus of the innocent infant whose mother sells roasted plantain around the premises of Daily Guide.

Ohene, who was in-charge of Daily Guide’s Printing Press, made it his habit to consistently lure the innocent infant into his office to satisfy his brutish and animalistic sexual desires, the release said.

The MAG said it knows it as a fact that the mother of the victim has reported the matter to the Nima Police, as well as the Domestic Violence Victims Support Unit (DOVSSU), and called on the two bodies not to attempt to push the matter under the carpet.

“We are picking up signals that some high-ups within the NPP are trying very hard to get the Police to kill the case. Sodomy is a crime under Ghana’s Criminal Code, and we are calling on the IGP, Mr. Paul Tawiah Quaye, to ensure that his men do not allow any external influence to prevent them from getting to the bottom of the matter and bringing the culprit to book,” the statement said.

“We have no doubt that Freddie Blay knows the whereabouts of his nephew, and he must be compelled to produce the sin-filled sadist for the law to deal drastically with him. The law is supposed to be no respecter of persons, and we do not expect the Ghana Police Service to allow Freddie Blay and his nephew to get away with this criminal act”, the group added.