A team of about seven heavily armed police officers besieged the premises of Citi FM and Citi TV on Tuesday afternoon, May 11, 2021, in an attempt to arrest a journalist.
Zoe Abu-Baidoo, a broadcast journalist with Citi FM and Citi TV had been targeted in the raid after the police accused her of receiving some video files from her colleague, Caleb Kudah.
Mr. Kudah, also a broadcast journalist and host of BackPage on Citi TV, had been accused of filming at the car park of the Ministry of National Security, a supposed restricted security zone on Tuesday, and had sent the videos to Zoe via WhatsApp.
In an attempt to arrest Zoe after tagging her as Caleb Kudah’s accomplice, the heavily armed officers besieged the premises of Citi FM/Citi TV in three different vehicles.
While at the premises, the officers tried to overpower Zoe, who at the time was standing at the company’s car park.
Zoe Abu-Baidoo subsequently bolted and reported the issue to her superiors after sensing danger because some of the officers tried to capture her. The incident shocked the staff who had come out in their numbers to catch a glimpse of it.
Management of Citi FM headed by the Chief Executive Officer, Samuel Attah-Mensah, who was present at the time of the incident, intervened and together with Zoe and other managers of Citi FM/Citi TV, followed the officers to the National Security Ministry.
Citi News’ Security Correspondent, Anass Seidu, who was part of the entourage in giving further details on the matter said, “Caleb Kudah who had visited someone at the National Security was arrested after filming at the premises of the Ministry. After he was arrested, the operatives claimed that he had sent whatever he had filmed to another colleague, Zoe Abu-Baidoo.”
“They [then] moved to Citi FM with heavily armed men to arrest Zoe. When they got here, the management of Citi FM and Citi TV joined the team back to the National Security Ministry with Zoe. After some interrogation, Zoe was allowed to leave. Caleb Kudah was being interrogated at the time we left.”
“The information we have is that Caleb Kudah will be released soon,” he said.
