By Raymond Quarchie
The man at the receiving end of Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Hon. Kennedy Agyapong, some politicians, and armed-chair investigative journalists’ tirade since his investigative documentary, ‘Number 12’ exposed the rot in Ghana Football, yesterday, on different platforms responded to his critics and haters, issue by issue.
Anas Aremeyaw Anas, has dared anyone who claims to have incontrovertible evidence of corruption against him to prove their cases in court, while denying that he has never taken bribe in his career as a journalist to drop a story.
“I’ve never in my life taken a bribe before. Nowhere! Whoever has a proof should bring it. It will crash. I know myself and I believe in myself. I know I’ve never taken bribe from anywhere. You can premiere 30 times nothing will come out of it. Some people are just blowing hot air” Anas stated.
The internationally acclaimed journalist stated that he is not deterred by the threats and intimidation by the NPP lawmaker for Assin Central but that he is focused on his job and would not waiver in his attempts to expose corruption and rot in the country.
“I do not fear death because it is inevitable. What I fear is time. The threats and intimidation are there but we cannot be moved. We are doing our work. If you kill the Anas sitting in front of you today, another Anas will emerge”, he stated.
Anas, who recently exposed corruption in the Ghana Football Association leading to the dissolution of the football governing body and the resignation of the FA head Kwesi Nyantakyi also dismissed claims that he takes bribes from people to kill some hard core evidences he has in his possession.
He said that “In the last few days, I have been called a murderer. It has been said that I had murdered J.B Danquah. In fact, recently, I heard that I had even called the BNI and they had opened the place for me and I had gone to deceive or I had gone to tell the murderer that he should mention some people’s names in the murder. All those who say they have evidence and say I have been bought, let them take this evidence to the Police,” he threw a challeged.
“I have been accused of extortion all because of #Number12. In four days, what have I not gone through? So those who say I can be bought, I have gone to the court of law to establish my case and again I do not want to sound prejudicial, but we are in a law governed society and they will have their day in court to prove what I did and what I did not do,” Anas added.
“We are talking about the President of the nation and the Vice President who we all voted for. We are talking about Ministers of state. When the news had been dropped what do you think would have happened if I did not speak to them and I deliberately put the work out. As I said, as we do this work, we are subjected to court suits”, he emphasized.
He however, said “I could have easily been sued if I had not asked them their side. Let me put on record that I have no regrets going to the President, I have no regrets going to the Vice President. I have no regrets speaking to the Ministers involved and finding their side of the story because that is journalistic, that is ethical, that is what we always ought to do. If I get this story tomorrow again, I will go back and speak to them because their side also matter.”
Anas noted that he has made several impacts in the country by exposing wrongdoings in some state offices and that the heat after the Number 12 video will not stop him from working hard for the country.
He further said “If you want to make an impact, you should be able to separate the nonsense from what is important. Journalism is not about wealth but rather asking the right questions. I will encourage a lot of people to go into investigative journalism as well. A lot of people have died for this country and we cannot afford to let them down.”
Anas has won several international awards to his credit including the US State Department Award on Trafficking In Persons (TIP) award (Washington), the first with Kurt Schorck award in international Journalism (London) Ghana’s Journalist of the Year, Ghana’s Investigative Journalist of the Year, the Lorenzo Natali Prize Awards, and several others. He was verbally recognized, praise and commended by Former US President; Barrack Obama.
