COLLATION FOR TRUE, FAIR AND TRANSPARENT JOURNALISM IN GHANA
(CFTJ- GHANA.)
PRESS STATEMENT
SUBMIT RAW UNEDITED VIDEO OF GALAMSEY EXPOSÉ OR FACE US IN COURT AFTER 48HOURS
DATE: 11TH MARCH, 2019.
Good morning Ladies and gentlemen of the press. We are grateful to you for making time off your busy schedules to be here this morning for this important press encounter.
Let us begin by saying that, for every democracy to thrive, corruption must be treated with no kids gloves. It must be fought with all the anti-corruption provisions enshrined in our constitution and other legally provided means.
It must also be emphasised, that, over the years, investigative journalism has been one of such tools, deployed in fighting corruption and one of the names which became synonymous with this practice was Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
As it’s in the nature of the beast, the selfless, anti-corruption hero as he was perceived to be, has fallen on his own sword.
Recent revelations has left the whole country shocked as Anas has been embroiled in some shady deals which has left many in doubt of his credibility.*
It is for this reason that we are alarmed and stating unequivocally that it is highly unacceptable for the hardworking sons and daughters of this country who cry deep within themselves of the ills of corruption to be made to trust Anas Aremeyaw Anas as the messiah in the fight against corruption in Ghana, when in fact, Anas and his master Abdul Malik Kweku Baako have rather sought to manipulate previous authentic undercover investigations to allegedly extort cash from its victims. A method best described as extortion/ blackmailing or disgracing people publicly for a work that he was contracted privately to do for persons who have issues with the said victims.
To this, Anas has succeeded in using this rather brutish, self-centered approach, which has resulted in him amassing wealth. An approach, that, the famous anti-corruption crusader, Martin Amidu refers to as “corruptionprenuer”.
As is the manner of him, Anas and his Tiger Eye PI in recent times, sought to implicate the secretary of the IMCIM, Charles Onuawonto Bissue in a purported corruption activity at the committee. We have reason to believe that Mr. Anas only sought to disgrace Mr. Bissue and cause the said gentleman to loose his job. This victimisation, is as a result of Vanguard Taskforce raiding three different mining companies allegedly associated with Anas and Mr. Abdul Malik Kweku Baako with a stated capital on their company’s operation document being Gh500. We ask Mr. Ana’s, did you think Mr. Bissue’s employers would be gullible enough to sack him because he fought your illegal operations?
Please, let us put on record that, this is the second time Anas has taken secret filming of Mr. Bissue, in his quest to blackmailing him. We want to ask Anas and his pay masters, a simple question, where is the first secret filming on Charles Bissue, in 2017? Where is that video?
Fellow Ghanaians, let us again put on record that, a short video circulated on social media in 2017 in which Anas and his so called investigators said Mr. Bissue was taking monies to circumvent same processes. Why didn’t Anas, if he was the saint he claims to be, pursue that so called corrupt act by Mr. Bissue? Well, we know that that was when Mr Bissue had raided ‘his’ concession.
Again, Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Kweku Baako should explain, why his new crusading guide newspaper, in recent times have made it their sole aim to tarnish the enviable image of Professor Frimpong Boateng? Is it not because, Mr. Baako’s persistent requests, emphasis is on persistent, to have his way was constantly declined by the revered Professor, and he has chosen to attack him in his newspaper to have him removed as the chairman of IMCIM. Ladies and gentleman, now you can put the pieces together, it’s more of revenge and vindictive journalism, rather than Anas’s so called investigative expose.
The government in addressing this issue stated that, the raw unedited video of Anas’ work on galamsey, be made available for thorough investigation. Is is not telling, that an investigation that took only 14 days to undertake, and its 15 days and counting and to Anas and his team are yet to submit government’s request? Can’t Anas order his team members to send the unedited video to government even when he is cooling off with Kweku Baako in the US? Lets put on record that, the special prosecutor is different from the government so if Anas says they have given their unedited footage to the special prosecutor, the government and the people of Ghana also want to know the content of the unedited video, so we make our own deductions. Let us also say that, we are ready to pay for online space to host the unedited video for well-meaning Ghanaians to watch it there, other than the special prosecutor.
Not all Ghanaians will be able to see the unedited video. By this, we are giving Anas and his team 48 working hours to submit the raw video to the government. We are challenging him to release the full unedited video, and we are ready to have it broken down for every Ghanaian to watch it at our own cost. If he fails to submit the unedited video in the next 48 hours, he will meet us in court!
Now to those who question why some well-meaning Ghanaians are now seeing the ills with the Anas’ method, let us remind ourselves that every method, from time to time needs to examine itself to see, if its theories still make scientific sense. Let us say that, the Anas who used to go undercover to observe how children were being maltreated, the Anas who used to appear as a mad man to experience the wrongs in society, the Anas who went to work with a biscuit producing company in order to see the criminality, did all these works without entrapping or luring people with cash and recording them.
One would have thought that with that past experience, he would be training more people who will have the patience to observe a process involving criminality and record them, as a way of improving his methods!
Shockingly, this is not it. The recent works of Anas are not possible if he doesn’t give out monies to his victims. But the Anas of today have rather developed love for money, other than to fight real corruption or ills in society. He fixes his match, and becomes his own referee. No wonder his love for money has made him forget that, for someone to be described as corrupt or circumventing a process for personal gains, the person must demand or solicit it! Not him Anas rather giving!
Anas needs to remember his first love, or better still have the patience to wait until people demands monies to circumvent processes. If not, he is shamefully veering off the work of an undercover journalist! Undercover journalist whose works is empty if money does not exchange hands!
Well, ladies and gentlemen, as with our preliminary investigations, Charles Bissue as all other citizens enjoys the presumption of innocence, and Anas has no right to describe him as corrupt until a court of competent jurisdiction declares him so.
Thank you all for coming.
God Bless Ghana
Long Live Us All!
….signed….
Prince Ishmael Dimah
National Spokesperson, CFTJ-GHANA
(0247888300)
Baron Kofi Nyarko
Convenor ,CFTJ-GHANA
(0244592321)
Charles Mintaba
national Chairman,CFTJ-GHANA
(0206122180
You must be logged in to post a comment.