Dominic Ayine, the lawyer representing Ibrahim Saanie Daara, the Communications Director of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) in a case brought against investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, has said the portion of the #Number12 video that captured his client was doctored to implicate him.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Friday after they filed two separate suits against Anas, Ayine, who did not go into the full details of the suits, stated that upon careful examination of the video, they have concluded that the video was tampered with.
[contextly_sidebar id=”YLpqYjkHe6CbOL2awt44NggdKZZdbPyz”]“I would state very clearly upon watching the video, we could not but come to a conclusion that, the video was edited and doctored to put our client in a bad light,” he said.
He also explained that his client never took any money from the investigative journalist and his team as suggested.
He said the GHc20 million Ibrahim Saanie Daara is seeking in damages against Anas Aremeyaw Anas, is nothing compared to the damage the #Number12 video has caused his client and his family.
The suits are in two parts – one for defamation, and the other for invasion of privacy.
Meanwhile, Anas’ lawyer, Kissi Agyabeng, said the Tiger Eye PI is expectant of lawsuits from every angle, adding they are ready to take up the cases head on.
He stated that although they have not been officially served with the suit yet, they have they gotten hints of lawsuits from Saanie Daara’s legal team on media platforms and publications.
“The suit has not been served, but we have seen it on media platforms. He[Anas] has taken it with strive. It is to be expected, these things are normal. When you do a corruption exposé on such a scale, you don’t expect people just to sit and watch; people would hit back at you,” he said.
The Communications Director of the Ghana Football Association, Ibrahim Saanie Daara, has sued investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, for allegedly defaming him in the #Number12 video which captured alleged corruption in Ghana football.
The suits are in two parts – one for defamation, and the other for invasion of privacy.
In Saanie Daara’s defamation suit, he is asking the court to order Anas to pay him an amount of GHc20 million for damages the said video has caused him.
Background
Anas and his Tigereye PI team published and showed a video in June 2018 which captured top officials of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), and over 70 referees in supposed acts of corruption.
Saanie Daara, who was also captured in the video according to Anas, refused to accept the money given to him, but directed that the money be given to a man standing close to him, alleged to be his [Saanie Daara’s] colleague.
This amount according to the narration, was to get Saanie to influence a player’s call-up to the Black Stars, but in that video, Saanie explained to the team that a player’s call-up was solely the prerogative of the coach, and it also dependent on the player’s performance.
Mr. Daara has denied the claims by Anas,explaining that the said individual in the video was not his colleague, and that he was a member of Anas’ team who was used to achieve their aim, hence his resort to the High Court to clear his name.
“Please let me be emphatic that I met them alone with no colleague of mine. The next person standing to me was Acquah who is no colleague of mine. He was brought by Anas to set me up. They blurred his face. If they claim he is my colleague they should have shown the face or mentioned his name in the least” Saanie told citinewsroom.com.
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By: Farida Yusif/citinewsroom.com/Ghana