Anas pats Starr FM’s Adeti on the back

World-renowned investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, has praised Starr FM’s Edward Adeti for his recent investigation which led to the recusal of a senior High Court Judge, Justice Jacob B. Boon, from a case and the resignation of Rockson Bukari as a Minister of State at the Presidency.

“Never let anybody intimidate you. Many false things will be said about you just to discourage you from exposing wrongdoing. They will do everything in a bid to bring you down. Some of the attacks will come from your own colleagues. Every story that is worth telling, tell the world about it - big or small."

“Don’t let whatever they say unmake you. Don’t reply them. You see that I just keep quiet when some say whatever they want against Anas. Their deeds will always come back to haunt them,” Anas told Adeti when he met with him privately in Accra.

Anas, known for offering support to young anti-corruption journalists, gave the Starr FM’s investigative journalist a rare privilege of showing him his face throughout the hours-long private meeting before donning his trademark mask to pose for a picture with him.

Justice Boon is said to have held ex parte meetings at his residence in Bolgatanga with officials of the Shaanxi Mining Company Limited who were standing trial before him in a case with the Cassius Mining Company at the Bolgatanga High Court One.

After they were spotted at the judge’s residence a number of times during an undercover investigation by Adeti and were confronted by the investigative journalist, the Shaanxi officials presented Gh¢5,000 and a brand-new motorbike to him as bribe to kill the story. The investigative journalist took the bribe items to the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) as evidence and published in December 2018, the same story some public figures and the Shaanxi officials had sought to suppress.

The undercover investigation led to Justice Boon recusing himself from the Cassius-versus-Shaanxi case on Monday, December 17, 2018. The bribery scandal resulted in the resignation of Rockson Bukari on Monday, April 29, 2019, after his voice was captured on a leaked investigative tape as he begged the journalist to drop the story and promised to facilitate bribe for him to not expose the judge and the Shaanxi officials. Bukari referred to Justice Boon as an intimate friend on that leaked tape.

The Cassius-versus-Shaanxi case has been referred to the Bolgatanga High Court Two presided over by Justice Asmah Akwasi Asiedu. The court is scheduled to sit on the case again on Friday, May 10, 2019.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Democratic Development-Ghana (CDD-Ghana), the National Patriots against Injustice and Corruption (NAPAIC) and the Citizens Movement against Corruption (CMaC) among other notable organisations have added their voices to growing calls from an angry public for Justice Boon, who is still at post since the exposé and his recusal took place, to step down without further delay for a thorough investigation.