Manasseh Azure Awuni, investigative journalist, has played down on claims that he hates the Akufo-Addo led government, a reason for his constant attacks.
In a post on Facebook, the journalist remained resolute, insisting that he’ll not bow out of exposing shady deals, particularly those that has the Jospong group involved.
Manasseh had compared his investigative works in Ghana to that of Norwegian investigative journalists who exposed a Sheik from the Gulf states involved in the controversial Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine.
According to him, these journalists have constantly reported shady business dealings involving the Sheikh in their own country, and since then they’ve made it a point to police and scrutinize every single contract that the Sheikh is involved in, even outside their country; yet some Ghanaians malign him (Manasseh) when he reports on shady deals involving the Jospong group in Ghana.
He reiterated that he has no hate for the government or any individual, however, he’ll continue to do his investigative work as a journalist as long as corruption continues to abound.
“As long as I remain a journalist and as long as the government of Ghana keeps awarding dubious contracts to the Jospong Group, I will continue to report,” his post on Facebook read in part.
See full post below:
READ THIS, PLEASE: The Norwegian Journalists that Saved Ghana Millions of Dollars and the “Bitter” Journalist in Ghana.Do you know that Ghana will save millions of dollars because the Sputnik vaccine deal has been canceled? Each dose of the vaccine costs $10 but Ghana was paying $19 per dose because we went through a middle man, a Sheik from the Gulf states. If Ghana was buying 20 million doses, you only have to multiply 20 million by $9 and that tells you the additional cost we would incur above the market price.But that’s not the interesting part.
The interesting part is that those who really exposed this deal are Norwegian journalists (with support from Fredrick Asiamah and Manasseh Azure Awuni from Ghana).These Norwegian journalists are the same people who exposed the rot in the Ameri Power deal in 2016.Do you know how they do it? They reported shady business dealings involving the Sheikh in their own country, and since then they’ve made it a point to police and scrutinize every single contract that the Sheikh is involved in, even outside their country.
In Ghana alone, they have done two stories involving the Sheikh. Do you question them whether they hate or have something against the Sheikh? Are they bitter? Do you care whether they want to bring down the Sheikh or do you care about the content of their reportage and the money they help Ghana save?Have you finished answering? Now read on.In 2013, I first reported on how two major companies had become conduits for fraudulent contracts that made Ghana lose hundreds of millions of Cedis. These companies are rLG and Zoomlion, and their sister companies.
Since then, the government has stopped giving rLG those shady contracts. I have no reason to keep on talking about rLG.In the case of Zoomlion, however, those shady contracts continue to cause financial loss to the state. Even though there is enough evidence of wrongdoing against Zoomlion and the Jospong Group, the state is not interested in prosecuting the company and the government officials that award the contracts.So what should a journalist do? Shut up as more of such shady contracts continue?As long as I remain a journalist and as long as the government of Ghana keeps awarding dubious contracts to the Jospong Group, I will continue to report.
The narrative that I am doing this out of hatred doesn’t make sense and it won’t stop me. By the way, if you’re not a thief, why would you not have problems with a company that sold bin liners costing less than 1 MILLION to the government of Ghana at a cost of more than 63 MILLION CEDIS?Those who applaud the Norwegian journalists for policing the Sheikh and attack Manasseh for policing Jospong and his shady deals with the government of Ghana, will not stop me. That is a problem between them and their psychiatrists.And if you want to scream that Jospong is a private company should not be blamed, let me remind you that Phillip Assibit is serving a 12-year jail sentence.
Phillip Assibit’s Goodwill International Group (GIG) was implicated in my GYEEDA investigations. Those GYEEDA investigations also implicated Zoomlion and the Jospong Group, which did worse things with state funds than the GIG.Staying on a story for long when action is not taken by duty bearers is not a journalistic vice. It is a virtue that does not change because others would want that story shelved and forgotten.
Source: GhanaFeed.com
