Ace investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas known for blowing the cover of notorious ring taking bribe men and women in most of Ghana’s institutions and sub-Saharan Africa has questioned critics of his work on how they expect him to expose criminals and bad people if they were in his shoes.
Anas who is famous for utilizing his anonymity as a tool in his investigative piece and whose motto is to name, shame and jail said he receives criticisms from a lot of people especially Ghanaian bigwigs rubbishing and challenging his modus operandi.
Speaking at the 3rd Africa Leadership Conference, Anas Aremeyaw Anas said his critics always try to find faults with his works by accusing him of entrapment, questioning his methods through suits in court for which he always wins, accusing him of having harsh methods and many among others.
According to him, these backlashes he receives from critics make him stronger and pushes him to expose more bad people as his main objective is to accomplish the three things on his list; which is to name, shame and jail.
He stated that “Over the years many stories I have done, many people have gone to jail, I’ve been undercover as a prison inmate, I’ve been undercover in a psychiatric hospital, I’ve been undercover as a lawyer, I’ve played many many roles; to what effect do I look at. We don’t just change trends but we change trends looking at how those affect our societies”.
“So yes the ups and all of those can come but how relevant will all those tools of journalism that come into our hand, how will they be to our society. If you were in my position, what would you do? This is against the backdrop that I get criticised, it’s normal. People say undercover journalism is unacceptable, people talk about entrapment, people say that you’re not being fair, why should you put someone into jail, people say your methods are too harsh; if you were in my situation what were you going to do”, he quizzed.
Over the years, Anas has investigated institutions such as the Immigration service, judicial service, social welfare (specifically the Osu orphanage), the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Nsawam prison, the killing of albinos in Tanzania, quack abortion clinics in Nigeria, Malawi’s human harvest, the Number 12 exposé which shook institutions and left many jobless and the recent one on illegal mining dubbed ‘Galamsey Fraud’ which saw the former Secretary to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Charles Cromwell Bissue abusing his office and breaching his fiduciary duties by engaging in bribery and corruption.
Touting his achievements, Anas said he is proud of being called a controversial journalist and will always continue to deliver and expose the bad people in our country and Africa as a whole despite criticisms and backlash from others.
