The National Security Ministry has mounted a strong defence as to why it raided the Citi FM premises on Tuesday to arrest one of its journalists, Zoe Abu-Baidoo.

This comes after a section of Ghanaians criticised its operatives for storming the Adabraka-based station in a Rambo-style fashion with the intention to whisk away the news anchor.

They claim she had received unauthorised piece of information from her colleague, Caleb Kudah.

In the quest to set things straight, the Chief Director of National Security Secretariat, Lt. Col. Ababio Serebour (Rtd), said Miss Abu-Baidoo had earlier declined the invitation of the establishment.

As such, operatives were deployed to the news anchor’s workplace to pick her up for interrogation.

However, Mrs Abu Baidoo's account depicts the contrary.

Speaking in Citi TV's Point Of View on Wednesday, the news anchor explained narrated that upon receiving the video from Caleb, another text followed which read, "I'm hungry. Let us go and find something to eat".

At this point, she claims she was not aware of Caleb's predicament and had intended on responding.

In the process of the chat, she was told by a senior colleague that Caleb Kudah had been arrested.

The security personnel per Zoe's account, called back using Caleb's phone. The caller now introduced himself as the Director of Operations for National Security and explained the need for her to come to the secretariat for questioning.

The journalist says she told him that she would inform her employers about the development and revert regarding the way forward.

"The person was calm on the phone and said OK. So I hung up and called Richard Mensah and told him the people have called me using Caleb's phone. He said, 'oh these people, I told them DSP Azugu is dealing with me and so they should deal with me on that level'. So he said I should call them back and tell them that he will deal with DSP Azugu. So I called back, there was no response. I went to the cafeteria to eat."

According to Zoe, she later left the cafeteria to receive a phone call in front of the media house's Adabraka building where the national security operatives sped in and confronted her.

Citi FM journalist Caleb Kudah was detained on Tuesday for unlawfully filming a video at the premises of the National Security Ministry.

During the 'Back Page' host's interrogation, the operatives discovered that Mr Kudah had “secretly” forwarded the files to his colleague, Mrs Abu-Baidoo.

Hence, about seven heavily armed officers invaded the premises to arrest the Broadcast journalist.

Fortunately, management of Citi FM intervened to calm the raging tempers of the operatives.

Citi FM’s General Manager, Bernard Avle, who on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana described the scene as “scary”, said they prevented the operatives from taking the employee.

But subsequently, sent Miss Abu-Baidoo to the National Security Office for her to be interrogated.

The questioning, according to him, lasted for about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, Mr Kudah has accused the National security of manhandling him.

He claimed that the operatives slapped him multiple times and kicked him in the groin despite pleading to be released after he admitted to filming at the premises.

Following his revelation, the National Security Ministry said it had launched an investigation into the alleged assault in a statement on Thursday.

Lt. Col. Serebour (Rtd) indicated that the Ministry upholds the rights and freedoms of the citizenry and always strives to maintain the ethics and professional standards guiding operational duties.

 “The Ministry, therefore, takes with all seriousness the allegations of manhandling of the two journalists during the interrogation. The Ministry has therefore initiated investigations into the said allegations,” he added.