Part two of COVID-19 exposé will shock Ghanaians – Anas

Investigative Journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas has said the second part of his latest documentary on the novel coronavirus pandemic would expose more on the illegalities that occurred during the era of lockdown in Ghana. 

Speaking on Citi TV‘s The Point of View after the airing of first part on quack doctors selling purported coronavirus cures, he noted that there was more rot he had uncovered during his latest investigative work.

“The part two [of the coronavirus investigations] will focus on the stealing and I am very sad about part two,” he said.

“These social intervention things that the President took to give to the people of Chorkor and other places, I got a call from my source that food was ready to be sold.”

The government had committed to feeding vulnerable persons, most notably kayayei, during the partial lockdown of Accra and general economic slowdown.

“[But] there were these guys who brought out this same food that the President has given out to be shared being sold; bags of rice, eggs [etc].” he added.

Impact

The investigative journalist also acknowledged the disappointment of persons who were expecting a much more damning exposé.

But he stressed that the impact of such work ought not to be underestimated.

“We are getting to elections and people think you have to drop the name of that big politician. That is fine for their thoughts, but look, in journalism, nothing is small.”

“It is more about impact; how many people does this affect?”

FDA Reaction

A statement issued by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) on Monday, June 29 and signed by its Chief Executive, Delese Darko, said the unregistered products, which were being manufactured at Kojo Ashong, a village near Amasaman, had been falsely labelled to bear forged FDA registration number “FDB/TMP03709” on both products and also had March 2020 and March 2021 as their manufacturing and expiry dates respectively.

The statement said the action of the two violated Sections 113(1) and 118(1) of the Public Health Act, 2012 (Act 851).

It added that, FDA’s visit to the manufacturing premises revealed that the products were being manufactured under unhygienic conditions, which was also in contravention of Section 115 (1b) of the same Act.

“Moreover, results of laboratory analysis on the product conducted at the FDA’s ISO 17025-2017 Accredited Laboratory revealed that the products do not meet the requirements of Total Aerobic Microbial Count and Total Yeast and Moulds Counts as per the British Pharmacopeia specifications which makes the products unsafe for use,” it said.