Opinions of Monday, 16 July 2018

Columnist: Andy C.Y. Kwawukume

The Anas-Agyapong brouhaha: Too many gullible Ghanaians

Anas Aremeyaw Anas (L) and Kennedy Agyapong (R) Anas Aremeyaw Anas (L) and Kennedy Agyapong (R)

I am amazed at the uncritical acceptance of Kennedy Agyapong’s doctored video by some gullible Ghanaians and remarks attacking Anas so far because of the doctored cut and paste video that Agyapong and his cohorts criminally produced from stolen videos from Anas’s office. The video of Annan of Hot Fm accepting money shows the world the plot they have hatched to discredit Anas and his team in support of the corrupt people in Ghana who are now scared of being exposed by Anas. They are not the least motivated by a desire to fight corruption.

Was corruption not one of the major reasons the soldiers were giving for staging coups in Ghana too? Was it legal to stage coups against corrupt governments? Anas' methods have been challenged and approved by courts many times. So far as I am concerned, corruption must be defeated by hook or crook methods. Any innocent people caught in the dragnet must be appropriately compensated. Yes, there are times the end justifies the means inactions of the state. Yes, Anas is not a representative of the state but a private investigator besides being a journalist, and so have much leverage just as state detectives and spies do.

Now, it is amazing that some Ghanaians cannot see through the farce in the cut and paste video Agyapong is showing as Who Watches the Watchman? Anas even wrote about the Newtown video in which he got Babatunde and Mubarak to confess to him by pretending that he'd help them out. It is on Ghanaweb of 15 Sept 2009. You can all go and read his article. Did anyone hear Anas speak happily about how they were ready to bribe him with $100,000? Or, how they spent the money nyafu, nyafu on parties and girls? The video was not shown in court because the judge denied the prosecution from showing it. So how can Anas show it to the public later? That will be illegal! That made him angry enough to nail Justice Quist too in his exposé on the Judiciary and got him sacked. If Anas cooperated with him to sabotage that case, does anyone think Anas would later go and do a sting job on him, his partner in crime? Use your brains!

Again, it is just a pure lie that the state prosecutor was paid $5000 based on what was purportedly said in the video. A careful listening to the video, the inflexion of the words and analysis of the context of the question reveal that she actually asked: “tell me the amount transferred to him". She didn't say "me", as Agyapong and cohorts have led some gullible and uncritical Ghanaians to believe! The question was asked when both were intensely watching how the monies were split and Anas was interpreting the Hausa to her. Then we saw a writing that they were conspiring when the only problem was that the interpretation was not audible enough there.

To reinforce that false leading impression, we hear a voice saying the prosecutor asked how much she would be paid. Immediately after that, she asked her question but this was misinterpreted and written as: “tell me the amount transferred to me.” So the whole of Agyapong’s case rests on whether “him” or “me” was said in the video! I had asked others to listen to the video without knowing what it was about and they all said “him” was said! Agyapong’s case against Anas and the defamatory remarks against the state prosecutor collapsed completely on this easily proven falsehood alone. You don’t need a lawyer to prove that. Only a good English listener is enough. Audio equipment can be brought in to demonstrate the inflexions electronically with sound waves. Any Police Forensic lab in Ghana to do that, since they prefer to build Police hospitals in Ghana instead of providing equipment to the Police to fight and solve crime cases?

But then, contextually, are we to believe that, in the twinkle of an eye $5000 was transferred to her on the spot by Anas the international mobile banker who can transfer dollars magically? We did not see him doing any transfer on even his mobile phone. So how come an alleged enquiry about how much a person would be paid become a transfer to her? That's, already transferred into her account within seconds, before our very eyes? And she claimed in her rebuttal that she does not even have a dollar account, something which can be verified. So, into which account was the money transferred into?

The flaws in Agyapong’s doctored video to implicate Anas can be easily exposed by anyone who can understand English well and can use his or her brains to analyse the contextual circumstances of the exchanges in the video. Why are we not seeing this happening on any FM station in Ghana?

Besides this, Agyapong and cohorts lied that the case was not prosecuted, whereas it was actually prosecuted to the end and only finally dismissed 2 years after the original prosecutor retired. Is it her fault that the judge was probably bribed by the accused to make the case “basaaa”? Should we not be discussing and blaming the porous and unwholesome judicial system in the country which can see cases adjourned for years on end and pressing to find a lasting solution to that by demanding laws and rules to be made to compel cases to be heard judiciously within a specified period? After all, the judges and the judicial system are just ancillary services or support to good governance of a country in the manner of settling disputes, sanctioning offenders or those who break the laws, etc. As the case is now, we have become hostages to a capricious judicial system.

There are too many gullible Ghanaians who are incapable of using their brains to analyse logically and rationally but are also forming and trying to express their opinions on this matter.

As for the journalists of the Annan type and the media houses of Agyapong, they have a grudge and an agenda against Anas and so are out to discredit him but they are doing a disservice to the nation and the public good and so must be condemned and sanctioned. It is a shame that the sane and impartial journalists have remained silent though.

The victims themselves? Don't worry. Agyapong will have his day in court to prove his defamatory claims.

I know some commoners will continue to support Agyapong no matter what, so let me leave it at this point. Their opinions will not matter in the long run anyway. The truth shall out and win!