Former Communications Director for the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Ibrahim Sannie Daara, has taken a swipe at sports journalists in Ghana for failing to probe the Tiger Eye PI “Number 12” investigative documentary on corruption in Ghana's football space.
Mr. Daara was alleged to have been offered and accepted money from agents of Tiger Eye PI, contrary to Article 20.1(b) of the GFA Code of Ethics, following the airing of the Number 12 Documentary.
The documentary, however, failed to show pictorial or video evidence of the said incident which resulted in Sani seeking redress with the Ethics Committee of the Ghana Football Association to clear his name.
The GFA Ethics Committee dismissed the case against Mr. Daara, concluding there was insufficient evidence to support the allegation of acts of bribery and corruption on the part of the complainant.
Speaking to Luv Sports in Kumasi on the back of the Ethics Committee ruling, the former BBC reporter accused the sports media in Ghana of failing to do a good job by not probing further to ask relevant questions after the airing of the documentary.
“What disappointed me most is my own people in the sports journalism fraternity. Whatever Anas and his people said in the video without any evidence was what some of the media took and ran around with it, put it on their social media platforms and consistently played it without even having to ask me a question,” he said.
Sani is surprised the media failed to ask why Anas did not produce evidence of the third-party purported to have received the money on his behalf in the voice over in the documentary.
“I went to meet these people alone and the conversation I had with them did not even last for five minutes. And then they will just subtitle you or do a voice over and say Sani Darra sent a colleague to receive the bribe on his behalf. Did the media even ever think of asking, where is that person they were talking about? Where was that person in the video? Who is that person and where was I, he quizzed? We never asked these questions, a lot of us are cowards. People are afraid to ask questions but this is the duty of the journalist. On this occasion we failed, the Ghana media failed. We took everything that the guy said as the bible,” he said.
Darra who is currently working with the Confederation of African Football revealed in the interview that he is contemplating pursuing the matter further but will first make some consultations after which his decision will be made public.
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