President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo has demanded an unqualified apology from international media organisation, Al Jazeera over its publication of its recent documentary dubbed ‘Gold Mafia.’
A letter signed by the secretary of the president, Nana Bediatuo Asante, asked Al Jazeera to “retract immediately and apologise for airing an inaccurate and unfair documentary that contained spurious and unsubstantiated allegations against the President and the Government of Ghana.”
Al Jazeera has seven days within which to oblige the seat of government, according to a letter from the presidency dated April 25, 2023.
Background
The reaction from Jubilee House comes after Ghana popped up in a damning investigative documentary conducted into some of Zimbabwe’s gold smuggling and money laundering syndicates.
In the concluding part of the documentary, undercover journalists posing as Chinese gangsters interact with one of the key parties, Alistair Mathias to help clean their dirty money.
Mr Alistair is said to be instrumental in designing money laundering schemes for many corrupt politicians in Africa.
Alistair named Ghana as one of the countries where he had executed similar schemes adding that President Akufo-Ado is his good friend and claims he used to be his lawyer.
“Ghana’s President is a good friend of mine, in fact, he was my lawyer,” he told the undercover reporters.
Mr Mathias added that he used to be the biggest smuggler in Ghana at one point, raking out about $40 million to $60 million worth of gold a month from the West African country.
However, Jubilee House says some “parts of the documentary are malicious, defamatory, and a calculated attempt to tarnish the reputation of the President and Government of Ghana.”
According to the letter, The Jubilee House demanded further and better particulars from Al Jazeera on the period for which the President allegedly provided legal representation to Mr. Alistair Mathias or his company, Guldrest Resources but Al Jazeera “refused or failed to provide these details as requested and went ahead with the broadcast of the documentary.”
Below is the letter;
Source: Myxyzonline.com
