Few days after castigating investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas for premiering the controversial judicial corruption video, president of policy think tank, IMANI, Franklin Cudjoe has backtracked on his comments.
“Much as I turn to agree that it doesn’t become a truly masterful investigative piece when you really want to find out an evil which is being perpetrated; it would have been nicer if you actually caught the people in the act and not the one instigated by you because that becomes a bit like subterfuge…” he said on The Big Issue last Saturday.
[contextly_sidebar id=”2KmCYLZDkSVWnctboMN2IVgmfXsoVbuF”]Franklin Cudjoe argued that due to the pending lawsuits filed by some of the indicted judges against the video, Anas should have followed due process before showing it.
“…I am not too sure that I agree with the whole idea of public viewing of this without necessarily following the law. I believe strongly that the processes should have been cleared before it was shown. I think that clearly speaking it was one piece of lawless act; that’s my layman’s view. It is important that we follow the rule of law even if these people are indeed guilty.”
However days after the comment, the IMANI boss in a short statement said he only wanted to draw Anas’ attention “to the fact that such an excellent exposé should first have resulted in the arrest of all involved before the public viewing to reinforce the evidence as the maxim not guilty until proven guilty in a competent court matters.”
Mr Cudjoe added; “perhaps, he [Anas] did not believe the alleged culprits would have been dealt with by [the] required arm of the state – the Executive,” thus premiering the video at the Accra International Conference Centre.
“And that is where I personally call on the Police to immediately effect the arrest of all who they had seen on camera as they would in any crime that is reported instead of the piecemeal fashion they have been deploying so far in this grave matter,” he added.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana