‘Anas Principle’: Learn to be consistent – Ablakwa prods Akufo-Addo

National Democratic Congress (NDC) lawmaker Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has berated President Akufo-Addo for reneging on his pledge to apply the ‘Anas Principle’ in the fight against corruption.

Then candidate Akufo-Addo in the lead up to the 2012 elections espoused the modus operandi of investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas and promised to adopt it to curb corruption.

There is pressure on him now as president to walk the talk as his appointees and other New Patriotic Party (NPP) stalwarts downplay the works of Anas following his latest investigation implicating government officials.

“The measures are going to be difficult but there has to be a variety of them…including what I consider the Anas ‘Principle’. Setting up highly motivated professional groups of young people who will work as if you like [as it were] undercover to unearth examples of corruption wherever they can find them and thereby allow the authorities to deal with the issue.

“And not only expose the corruption but you will actually deal with it in terms of sending people to court [and] prosecuting them and hopefully the courts will cooperate and make sure the culprits are found guilty and sanctions appropriately enforced. A variety of measures but the key one is the Anas Principle as well as what you do to securitise those in the tax-collecting agency,” Akufo-Addo said in 2012.

Following his loud silence, opposition MP Ablakwa is calling on him to be consistent with his conviction despite his appointee being caught on tape circumventing procedure to allow illegal mining.

Anas recently released his exposé on how government officials in charge of mining are circumventing procedures to allow illegal mining.

He has been under incessant attacks, especially from the NPP camp.

The secretary of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Charles Bissue, on Friday stepped aside following allegation of bribery against him. He was caught in the undercover sting operation receiving bribe to allow illegal miners to operate despite a ban on the operation. The Tiger Eye PI team also had a lot of security personnel falling into their net.

The North Tongo MP in a tweet said:

From “Anas Principle” to Anas Endangered.

May we all learn to be consistent over time - no matter whose ox is gored. pic.twitter.com/7kwzW7J6x3

— Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa (@S_OkudzetoAblak) 4 March 2019

Former president John Mahama is also mounting pressure on Akufo-Addo to call his supporters to order.

“The investigative exposé by Tiger Eye PI about officials at the Presidency aiding illegal small scale mining, ‘galamsey’, in Ghana, is an example of what our President Nana Akufo-Addo described in the attached video as the Anas principle,” Mahama said in a Facebook post.

“Despite all the efforts by the NPP and Government apparatchiks to distract the nation’s attention from the premiere of the video last week, the evidence still stares us in the face.

“The President should bring to book and sanction these people that we clearly see in the Anas video indulging in acts of malfeasance and receiving illicit monetary consideration.

“He should let his belief in the Anas principle show by taking action. Action speaks louder than words. And while you are at it, let me respectfully inform you sir, that Anas and his team have never felt more persecuted and threatened for the work that they do, than under your administration,” Mahama said.