Kennedy Agyapong is the happiest man of the moment as he has swerved a GH25 million lawsuit from Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
The Ghanaian investigative journalist sued the politician in 2018 over his ‘Who Watches The Watchman’ documentary. Anas in the suit claimed that Mr Agyapong defamed him in a documentary he aired on various platforms.
Anas prayed the court to award damages against Agyapong and compelled him to clear his name. However, the High Court presided over by Justice Eric Baah held that Anas Aremeyaw Anas failed to prove that Ken Agyapong defamed him by airing the documentary.
This has left Kennedy Agyapong coming out victorious from the suit. To celebrate his win, a champagne party was held by the Assin Central MP and his staff, friends and family. In videos from the celebration, they talked about the case whilst they drink and dine.
In the video below, the excited NPP flag bearer aspirant, in his kaftan and barefooted, was spotted grabbing a glass of champagne, cheering to toast and sipping out of joy.
In the court’s view, the documentary in question rather exposed shady deals that Anas and his associates were involved in.
In a lengthy ruling, the court said that Agyapong provided sufficient evidence to prove that the Anas used the findings of his work to solicit money from persons implicated in the evidence gathered in his investigations.
It added that evidence also proved that those who were able to pay the sums of money demanded by Anas and his associates got exempted from videos that were shown to the public.
Investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas
The judge went on further to chastise Anas, saying what he and his associates engaged could not be called investigative journalism but rather investigative terrorism and that Agyapong was justified to call Anas “a blackmailer, corrupt, an extortionist, and evil”.
“I find the claims by the plaintiff [Anas Aremeyaw Anas) meritless and they are hereby dismissed,” Justice Baah is quoted to have ruled.
It would be recalled that an investigative work dubbed “Number 12” exposed corruption in Ghana football and captured the then GFA president Nyantakyi taking bribes from undercover journalists.
pulsegh.com