New Patriotic Party (NPP) firebrand, Kennedy Agyapong has vowed to take on the investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
Mr. Agyapong said he will start by publishing photos of properties of Anas he claims are dotted across the country.
Kennedy Agyapong who is also Assin Central Member of Parliament said he is taking such action because he hates Anas’ mode of operation which he thinks is “unfair.”
He said Anas baits his victims with money, records it secretly and when they fall for it, he publishes the recordings to tarnish their image.
Anas blackmail
“I am not against the investigations that he is doing, but the procedure is totally wrong; enticing people to speak so that he will go and blackmail them and make money, so he could build apartment houses in Dzorwulu and buy lands all over the country, is what I hate and God will not even bless him,” he said.
Kennedy Agyapong made the vow on Asempa FM’s Ekosii sen programme on Monday on the back of the much talked about yet-to-be premiered video which supposedly captures top officials within Ghana’s sports sector engaging in some shady deals.
Nyantakyi in hot waters
President of the Ghana Football Association, Kwesi Nyantaky is already being investigated by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) after President Nana Akufo-Addo ordered the security institution to interrogate him.
Nyantakyi allegedly used the name of Akufo-Addo to seal a business deal in the said Anas video.
“I am not against anybody fighting corruption; I don’t have a problem. But you can’t tell me that Kwesi Nyantakyi is corrupt,” the Assin Central MP said.
I’m not scared of Anas
Mr Agyapong also said he is not scared about Anas but against his style of investigation.
The MP said he would release the pictures a week after Anas screens the said investigative piece in question.
“I’m not scared of Anas. I don’t even know him, but the information in my possession is enormous. I called his lawyer and told him to advise him… After he shows his video, we will also show his own the following week. I have pictures of his buildings. I am daring him; I want Ghanaians to see who Anas is,” he said.
Kweku Baako responds
Meanwhile, responding to Agyapong’s claims on the same programme, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Jnr, editor-in-chief of the New Crusading Guide [a newspaper Anas works for] said the debate about practices of undercover journalists is not new.
“The moral and ethical challenges that undercover journalists confront is as old as the branch of journalism called the undercover journalist. Out there in the world, there is a huge debate about whether what undercover journalists do is right or wrong. And that debate is ongoing.”
I don’t understand Kennedy Agyapong
On claims about Anas’ properties, Kweku Baako said: “I don’t understand where Kennedy Agyapong’s beef is.”
“Perhaps it will be useful for him to be specific and give us reasons—even if those properties belong to Anas—why he thinks they are products or criminal activities of corruption, then we can engage him. As at now you can’t engage somebody of his stature on such matter. It is like emotions without the benefit of intellect, and I find it difficult to engage in such things,” he added.
