Anas’s ‘modus operandi’ is wrong period!

Ordinarily and on the surface level one sees Anas Armiyaw Anas as a national hero having specialized in ‘Under cover journalism’ exposing rots in the countries systems that include the customs service the police and now the judiciary. He is held highly internationally.

Even though many people across the nation applaud him as a hero there seems to be lots of question marks to his modus operandi pushing be fast becoming a notorious hero of our time. His method of detecting fraud through enticing people into accepting bribes is crude and unethical in both law and journalism.

Yet he seems to be winning many people over who do not know what Anas realty is up to. Mr. Bright Akwetey a lawyer and former prosecutor who is considered by me as a great thinker has said it all explaining that since Anas has been tempting people with bribes he is equally liable for prosecution and must be taken on by the law.

”In the way he does his work therefore he should not be allowed to go scot free even if immunity has been placed on him by the Attorney Generals Department. Mr. Akwetey intends to challenge the immunity placed on Anas. Mr. Bright Akwetey describes as questionable; the modus operandi employed by investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas in uncovering the alleged bribery in the judiciary.

According to him, the journalist invaded the privacy of the judges and lured them; hence he (Anas) cannot be excluded from the allegations leveled against the judicial officers.

“…When investigating, you (Anas) didn’t go to hide somewhere to look at or to screen a scene when a judge is seen taking money from somebody but you instigated the thing yourself by offering cash,” he argued.

What is more, after recording videos of acts of bribery that Anas instigated he has decided to put it out there for public viewing. Isn’t this ridiculous?

Even when a legal suit was filed to stop Anas from screening the video of the alleged bribery in public, he went ahead to show it, a situation that can lead to Anas and many others to be cited for contempt in court of law.

On his part Counsel for some of the judges implicated in the judicial scandal has described investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas as one of the most lawless people in the world.

A livid John Ndebugri believes that it is a blatant abuse of the law for the ace investigative journalist to premiere the much anticipated video on judicial corruption despite an application to restrict the showing of the video.

Tiger Eye PI, the investigative company headed by Anas, broadcast the documentary on judicial corruption at the Accra International Conference Centre on Tuesday.

Although people feel Anas has done so well in exposing rots in public offices he is not the one to determine who among the judges in guilty or not. If he is not the one to pronounce them guilty it is therefore wrong to ridicule them in public before their cases are heard. Therefore the continued showing of the video on the judges in public is wrong.

In his video Anas seems to have singled out some judges as clean for refusing to accept bribes from him. That judgment is according to Anas and those who believe in his methods .However when put to strict scrutiny these same judges could be found wanting for accepting bribes not directly according to Anas theory but through gifts of cars, houses, or savings in their accounts at home and abroad that cannot be captured by Anas through his video and audio gadgets.

Anas claims to have exposed bribery and corruption in public sector organizations like the police, customs service and our courts. But these organizations still record bribery and corruption and stealing as published in the media every day.

Just get people to go round to ask people how they acquired their passports, driving licenses or visas to travel and you will find that nothing has changed. Go out and find out from journalists about their sources of income apart from their salaries and they will tell you it is through ‘solidarity’ amounts given to them while on assignments.

It is legitimate but an to some extent inducement for some journalists to write for those who pay them. We should not deceive ourselves into believing that Anas is a messiah who has come to solve our problem with corruption. We are yet to stop offering bribes to police men willingly and meter readers of Electricity Company of Ghana. We still offer men in high offices ten per cent for offering us contracts to supply goods and services and on road and building contracts.

Anas is an award winning journalist who believes in his modus operandi. But the time has come for him to change or improve on his ways of gathering information. It must not include coercion or tricks. That definitely is not journalism neither is it good intelligence gathering. Anas must investigate rots in organization by allowing the offence to be committed naturally as done in the Watergate scandal and not through artificial intelligence using crude methods of bribing people in high offices.

As a Muslim he must know that it is wrong to put people into temptation by offering them bribes. Some may reject the amounts because they do not know Anas who is a stranger but others will accept the gifts or bribes because they need money badly to pay school fees for their children or fend for their immediate and extended families .

Executive Director

EANFOWORLD FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

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