CM – FIFA corruption journalist Ahmed Husein shot dead in Ghanaian capital

The journalist who infiltrated to denounce the corruption in the governing body of world football, FIFA, was shot dead in a public street

A journalist who helped expose widespread corruption within Ghana’s world football organization was murdered on a public street Image: AFPSource: AFP

Ahmed Husein was part of a team led by award-winning journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas whose undercover corruption investigation led to the resignation of the FIFA official from the Ghana Football Federation

The 34-year-old man was shot in the neck and chest by strangers on Wednesday as he walked home overnight in the capital Accra, police said

The journalist, whose other denunciations have lifted the veil on the transplant in the justice system, is well known for wearing hats and masks to conceal his identity

Football’s world governing body FIFA last October banned former Ghanaian FA boss Kwesi Nyantakyi for life and fined him $ 700,000 after being filmed in accepting bribes Nyantakyi has been accused of asking for $ 15 million to secure government contracts

Husein was a key part of a group of investigators responsible for the life bans of eight referees and assistant referees and 53 other officials subject to 10-year bans Fourteen officials have been exonerated

Dozens of referees and football officials in several countries have also been banned, including Nigerian national team coach Salisu Yusuf, for receiving money from undercover journalists posing as agents

The revelations rocked Ghana, a country where football is the national sport and which prides itself on being a stable democracy in an often turbulent region

« Our men are currently on the ground to collect information, » said the director of the criminal investigation department, Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Dankwa

Relatives and friends of murdered Ghanaian undercover journalist Ahmed Hussein Suale sit at a mourning rally in Accra Image: AFPSource: AFP

Ghanaian journalists condemned the murder of the 34-year-old journalist, who played a key role in last year’s investigation

Husein had previously lodged a complaint with the police after a Ghanaian politician, Kennedy Agyapong, showed his photo on a private television channel

« This boy who is very dangerous, he lives here in Madina If he comes here, beat him », he said, pointing to the image of Husein

« He called on the world to beat him and said he was going to pay for it and now he’s been killed, » he said

« How can you put pictures of someone out there and broadcast them on national television and ask people to carry on with their life for a reward? » In law, it is an encouragement to crime « 

He was also threatened by Agyapong, who belongs to President Nana Akufo-Addo’s ruling New Patriotic Party

The Committee to Protect Journalists called for an immediate investigation and on Ghanaian authorities to « ensure that threats to the press are taken seriously »

RSF had already condemned the threats against Anas himself after revealing « threatening calls, messages of intimidation and suspicious vehicles near his home »

« It will be in the national interest to arrest the perpetrators of this crime, » commission chairman Yaw Boadu Ayeboafo said in a statement

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