Tiger Eye PI has dismissed allegations of extortion and blackmail levelled against the company and its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
This comes after investigative journalist, Anas premiered his documentary titled ‘Galamsey Economy’ which focused on exposing the pervasive corruption that is affecting the economy and investor confidence in Ghana.
Some persons have since suggested Anas had ulterior motives in undertaking the undercover expose, including ‘extortion and blackmail’.
A video consisting of rehashed allegations against the organisation from 2018 has been circulated on social media networks and other messaging platforms.
However, Tiger Eye PI has responded to the contents of the said video and has refuted the claims.
The organisation in their press statement said “Tiger Eye PI dismisses all the allegations including extortion and blackmail against Anas Aremeyaw Anas”.
The statement continued; “These allegations are imagined and fabricated, with no basis in reality. Tiger Eye PI notes, that, these are antics by the perpetrators of corruption and their collaborators, to distract from the facts of our recent exposé. It also merits the question: why do such allegations only surface when there is an exposé?”
The video showed the wife of former Ghana Football Association President, Mr Kwesi Nyantakyi’s, sometime in 2018 on Metro TV, alleging that some persons had contacted her husband to pay some amount of money ($100,000) in order to drop Anas’ previous job, #12 exposé.
Anas, however, challenged Mr Nyantakyi and his wife to sue him or report him to the police for extortion if they thought the allegations were true.
“It’s however important to note that, she, as well as the trumpeters of the said allegation, fail to mention anyone’s name. As we speak, Mr Nyantakyi is standing trial for fraud and corruption. If this allegation were true, it would be absurd that he would not go any length to put whoever made those demands for bribes before the law especially when through Tiger Eye’s anti-corruption operations, he has lost his job”.
Tiger Eye PI in their statement also stated that Mr Kennedy Agyepong who champions the said allegation was also seen in the video.
“It’s important to note that, the champion of these spurious allegations, Mr Kennedy Agyepong (also seen in the video), who splashed the photos of the late Ahmed Suale on his NET 2 TV prior to his assassination, is in court with Anas Aremeyaw Anas in a defamation suit.
“When he challenged the professional integrity of Anas as a lawyer at the General Legal Council, he was handed a defeat. Again, he has already lost the first round of defamation suit against him by Mr Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, where the court found his allegations to be unfounded and empty”, the statement said.
The organisation in its press statement also refuted the claim that agents of Tiger Eye PI solicited monies from Mr Charles Bissue as bribe to drop the Galamsey Fraud exposé. They said those claims are “false and without merit”.
“It’s interesting that whenever these claims are made, those alleging fail to mention specific names nor produce evidence to buttress their claims. They don’t also take bold steps to report such things to the law enforcement agencies for them to be dealt with per law. This should alert every watcher, that, these claims are wanton and must be treated as such”, the statement said.
Tiger Eye PI further refuted the claim of land grabbing by its CEO in the said video which showed a man in a cornrow said to be Anas.
“On humanitarian grounds, we wish to iterate that circulating videos of persons and tagging them as ANAS could put innocent persons at risk as they might get caught up and targeted in a case of mistaken identity.
“We further wish to state for the record that Anas Aremeyaw Anas, CEO of Tiger Eye has NEVER forcefully or illegally dispossessed anyone of his/her land and hasn’t been involved in an altercation as being purported. No court has found him guilty of illegal land expropriation”, the organisation said..
“Once again, we challenge anyone with evidence of wrongdoing in the nature of unlawful expropriation of lands to proceed to the appropriate State agency for further action”, the statement said.
Tiger Eye PI says neither its agents or third parties have demanded monies from persons busted by the organisation in the cause of their work, including the Number 12 and Galamsey Fraud exposés for the stories to be dropped.
“Per the internal operating procedures and integrity mechanisms within Tiger Eye, it’s IMPOSSIBLE for any of our agents to demand bribes to drop a story. The sheer frivolity and incoherence of these allegations have been exposed times without number by Tiger Eye PI”, the company said.
Meanwhile, Tiger Eye PI has challenged anyone with evidence of crime against its CEO, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, to without hesitation, make same available to the relevant State authorities.
By Elvis Darko