WE RECEIVED OPEN DEATH THREATS AFTER RELEASING #12 - ANAS

CELEBRATED UNDERCOVER JOURNALIST ANAS AREMEYAW ANAS WHOSE TEAM MEMBER HAS BEEN SHOT DEAD SAYS THERE WERE DEATH THREATS ON THEIR LIVES DURING THE NUMBER 12 INVESTIGATIVE DOCUMENTARY THAT CRUMBLED FOOTBALL ADMINISTRATION AND ACTIVITIES IN GHANA LAST YEAR.

In his first media interview after the murder of his key team member Wednesday, Anas said the threats, which they reported to the police and provided evidence, were made both openly and on tape.

“What is…clear is that there were threats; death threats, some made openly, some also made on tape against us which we tendered to  police during the Number 12 football investigations,” he told BBC correspondent in Accra Thursday.

Ahmed Hussein-Suale who was a key member of Anas’ private investigations team, Tiger Eye PI, was shot dead at Madina while driving home.He was said to have been shot three times in the chest and neck at close range just few metres to his home, allegedly by two unknown assailants who were riding on a motorbike.

Ahmed was one of Tiger Eye journalists whose photographs Ken Agyapong circulated in his ‘who watches the watchman’ anti-Anas video documentary, in which he urged people to beat him up for a handsome reward.

Many people, including lawyer for Anas, Kissi Adjabeng, have since the murder incident called on the investigators to invite the MP for questioning for exposing the Ahmed’s picture on national television.

The picture of Ahmed shown by the MP

“I refuse to even mention his name. I’m saying that he engaged in a reckless conduct by exposing the young man to death by putting his picture on his NET2 TV and inviting the whole world to beat him up,” Adjabeng said in an interview on Joy FM Thursday.

When asked by the BBC whether they were provided with protection after the threats, he responded: “Of course yes. We have protection system for all of us” but declined to discuss the details.

On how often he and his investigators get threats he said: “I think it is a daily routine” but mostly “when a big story breaks, it comes with its own issues”.Meanwhile, he has asked people to exercise caution in pointing fingers at persons they may suspect to be behind the murder which has since been condemned by the government, former president John Mahama and President Nana Akufo-Addo among other journalists’ groups globally.

“We should all be careful because it’s early yet” Anas told the BBC in the yet to be aired interview.

He described the MP’s conduct in exposing Ahmed’s picture as unfortunate, saying “I fell that this was an unfortunate comment but its early days yet, we have to be careful”

By Stephen Kwabena Effah|3news.com|Ghana