A United States Congressman is demanding sanctions against Member of Parliament for Assin Central Kennedy Agyapong over the death of investigative reporter Ahmed Hussein Suale.
A letter written to the Secretary of State of the United States of America, Mike Pompeo, by a member of Congress, Henry C. Johnson Jnr. demanded that Mr. Agyapong be issued with a possible travel ban and prevented from conducting business in the US.
Hussein-Suale who worked closely with ace investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas was killed Wednesday night by unknown gunmen whilst he drove home.
According to the police, he was shot three times, twice in the chest and another in the neck, dying instantly.
Hussein-Suale’s assassination comes months after his picture was published on national TV by a Member of Parliament of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) Kennedy Agyapong in a bid to discredit an investigative masterpiece dubbed #Number12 on African football by ace investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
Mr Agyapong went further to call on the public to attack as he was ready to face the consequences.
According to the United States Congress, “the professional execution-style slaying of Mr. Hussein-Suale’s murder in the aftermath of Mr. Agyapong’s disgraceful threats raises serious and credible suspicions about the circumstances of this murder.
“We cannot allow the voices of truth to be muffled by those who would benefit from silence and deceit. Our cherished American principles of freedom of the press necessitate a prompt and thorough investigation.”
The US Congress is urging it government to “determine what sanctions may be levied against Kennedy Agyapong MP, including a ban on travel to the U.S., a ban on access to the U.S. banking system for Mr. Agyapong and his businesses, and any other appropriate and applicable sanctions.”
The US Congress is also demanding that the US “conducts an independent assessment of the murder and the quality and scope of the Ghanaian government’s investigation.”
Below is the full letter
Dear Secretary Pompeo,
I write to urge maximum U.S. diplomatic, law enforcement, and intelligence support for an investigation into the murder ofjournalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale, who was shot to death in Ghana on January 15, 2019, as well as to urge the application of travel, banking, and other applicable sanctions targeting Kennedy Agyapong MP, a Ghanaian politician who urged violence against the journalist prior to his murder.
Mr. Hussein-Suale established his reputation as an undercover journalist exposing corruption, most prominently in the 2018 investigation of disgraced FIFA Council member Kwesi Nyantakyi. The suspicious circumstances of his murder this week warrant particular scrutiny. As Americans dedicated to press freedom, we must acknowledge that repression of the free press anywhere threatens the free press everywhere, including here at home.
Mr. Hussein-Suale worked as a journalist investigating comiption in many sectors, from government to international athletics, alongside famed reporter Anas Aremeyaiv Anas for Tiger Eye PI and the British Broadcasting Corporation.
In May 2018, the duo published footage of senior FIFA Council Member Kwesi Nyantaki accepting a $63,000 bribe from undercover journalists. Soon after, FIFA stripped Mr. Nyantakyi of his position and banned him from the sport for life. Alter Mr. Hussein—Suale, Mr. Anas, and their colleagues exposed widespread comiption across Ghana’s national soccer league earlier this year, Ghnnian President Nana Akfo- Addo summarily dissolved the Ghana Football Association. The same investigation exposed dozens of soccer officials accepting illegal payments, including a referee scheduled to officiate at last year’s World Cup in Moscow, Russia.
On Wednesday, January 16, Mr. Hussein-Suale was killed near his home by three bullets fired at close range — two in his chest and one in his neck. No arrests have yet been made in connection with the murder. Press freedom organizations such as Reporters without Borders (RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPI) have expressed grave concern that this was a targeted assassination. The concern is wholly reasonable — Mr. Hussein-Suale and colleagues involved in the investigation of Mr. Nyantakyi came under heavy personal attack when they disclosed
their findings in mid-2018, including from a member of the Ghanaian parliament. That member, Kennedy Agyapong, took to the screen on his own television station and disgraced himself by outrageously encouraging violence against the journalist, offering to pay personally for such violence, disclosing Mr. Hussein-Suale’s whereabouts, and publishing photographs of the undercover journalist live on screen.
The professional execution-style slaying of Mr. Hussein-Suale’s murder in the aftermath of Mr. Agyapong’s disgraceful threats raises serious and credible suspicions about the circumstances of this murder.
We cannot allow the voices of truth to be muffled by those who would benefit from silence and deceit. Our cherished American principles of freedom of the press necessitate a prompt and thorough investigation.
I therefore respectfully request the Department to take the following actions:
Assess the potential scope of U.S. diplomatic, law enforcement, and intelligence support for the Government of Ghana’s investigation of Hussein-Suale’s death, including potential Federal Bureau of Investigation support via the Office of the Legal Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Accra;
Conduct an independent assessment of the murder and the quality and scope of the Ghanaian government’s investigation; and
Determine what sanctions may be levied against Kennedy Agyapong MP, including a ban on travel to the U.S., a ban on access to the U.S. banking system for Mr. Agyapong and his businesses, and any other appropriate and applicable sanctions.
Please respond to my office within 30 days of receipt
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
