Civil Servants who have hit their retirement age but are still in the public service will soon be removed from the public sector payroll, Auditor General Daniel Domelovo has hinted.

The move is intended to rid the service of overaged staff in compliance with regulations of the public service.

“We shall also identify those who are overaged because under Article 199 of the constitution, which is the supreme law of Ghana, it says that if you are a public servant, at the age of 60 you go home, however, depending upon the exigency you can be given a contract for two years, two years and one a maximum of five.

“But some workers are 66 years, 67 years, 68 years, 69 years, 70 years and they are still there. When are they going to go? We are going to come out with these names and disallow their existence on the payroll so that they follow up to the high court and go and appeal against it,” Mr. Domelevo warned at 5th Delegates Conference of the Audit Service Division Union of Public Sector Workers Union of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Kumasi in the Ashanti region.

The statement comes at a time when government is denying reports that it has directed public sector CEOs who are beyond the retirement age to leave office.

The reports suggested that Presidency had directed eight CEOs to leave over office by the end of March because of their age.

Source: Starrfmonline.com

A 35-year-old man has been found dead at Chinto, a community near Nsawam in the Eastern region.

The deceased was allegedly killed by unknown assailants who dumped his body in a mud.

Police inspection on the deceased Tuesday morning revealed deep wounds on his lips, forehead, chin and bruises on the neck.

The Police also found blood clots on some leaves on the edge of the road, as well as a broken bottle stained with blood.

The shirt of the deceased was found about 5 feet away from the road.

The Deputy Public Relations Officer of the Eastern Regional Police Command, Sergeant Francis Gomado told Starr News that Preliminary investigation suggest that the deceased was a motor rider who might have been attacked by the assailants with bottle and sticks.

He said the Police has taken custody of all crime scene evidence.

Meanwhile, the body of the deceased has been conveyed and deposited at the police hospital morgue, Accra, for preservation, pending autopsy while strenuous efforts are underway to arrest the suspects.

Two of the media companies belonging to Nana Appiah Mensah, CEO of the failed gold dealership company, Menzgold, have suspended operations.

Zylofone FM and Zylofone TV have suspended services because the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has obtained a court order to freeze all assets belonging to Mr Mensah.

In a release issued on Tuesday, Communications Manager of Zylofon FM and Zylofon TV, Samuel Atuobi Baah, he said the two media networks will from January 30, 2019, suspend their operations.

“Owing to the order by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) dated 29th January and signed by Jacqueline Avotri (Public Affairs), to have all assets of Nana Appiah Mensah frozen, the general public is hereby informed that Zylofon FM and TV will suspend operations effective 30th January 2019,” the statement read.

The statement added further, “Being a law-abiding entity, we expect that due process be facilitated to restore sanity. Management of the stations is grateful to all, for the love and support shown us throughout the 13 months of operations as a broadcast firm.”

Order

EOCO revealed on Tuesday that it has secured a court order confirming the freezing of assets of Menzgold and other related businesses belonging to Nana Appiah Mensah, known popularly as NAM 1.

EOCO in the release advised family members of NAM 1, who is now a wanted fugitive, and his associates in possession of such properties to submit them to their EOCO in their own interest.

“By this news release, all employees of the affected companies, relatives and friends who are in possession of any of such properties are to surrender same by the authority of the high court to the Economic and Organized Crime Head Office and Regional Offices in their own interest.
The statement warns that “Failure to do so will constitute contempt of court which will attract the appropriate sanctions,” the statement said.

Listed properties

The listed properties belonging to NAM 1, according to EOCO, include Landed Properties and Vehicles of Menzgold Ghana Limited, Menzgold Office Complex, Zylofon Art Complex, Brew Marketing Consult, Star Madrid Football Club, Zylofon Music and Media Company Limited, Brew Energy Company Limited as well as G-Tech Automobile Service.

The rest are Two (2) properties located at Trassaco Valley (Plot No. 315 and Plot No. 337), Plot of land (No. 54) near Oak Street- Trassaco Valley, Uncompleted Residence and 510 acres of land.

NAM 1 was arrested in the United Arab Emirates in December 2018 for allegedly defrauding a business partner.

He has been declared a wanted man by a Circuit Court in Accra following similar accusations by some 60,000 persons who invested in his Menzgold firm, which has been described as experts as a Ponzi scheme.

Source: Myjoyonline.com

Civil Servants who have hit their retirement age but are still in the public service will soon be removed from the public sector payroll, Auditor General Daniel Domelovo has hinted.

The move is intended to rid the service of overaged staff in compliance with the regulations of the public service.

“We shall also identify those who are overaged because under Article 199 of the constitution, which is the supreme law of Ghana, it says that if you are a public servant, at the age of 60 you go home, however, depending upon the exigency you can be given a contract for two years, two years and one a maximum of five.”

“But some workers are 66 years, 67 years, 68 years, 69 years, 70 years and they are still there. When are they going to go? We are going to come out with these names and disallow their existence on the payroll so that they follow up to the high court and go and appeal against it,” Mr. Domelevo warned at 5th Delegates Conference of the Audit Service Division Union of Public Sector Workers Union of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Kumasi in the Ashanti region.

The statement comes at a time when government is denying reports that it has directed public sector CEOs who are beyond the retirement age to leave office.

The reports suggested that the Presidency had directed eight CEOs to leave over office by the end of March because of their age.

On 18 January, Ahmed Hussein-Suale, a Ghanaian investigative journalist who had collaborated with the BBC, was shot dead near his family home in Accra. Ghanaian police believe he was assassinated because of his work.

At first the gunshots sounded like firecrackers, and Unus Alhassan wondered why someone was setting them off so long after Christmas.

It was nearly midnight in Madina, a suburb of the Ghanaian capital Accra. Alhassan’s family was sitting together talking outside the family home, as they often did late into the night. His brother, Ahmed Hussein-Suale, had just left to check on a nephew who was sick. When the sounds of the firecrackers stopped, and the ordinary noise of the neighbourhood settled, Alhassan turned his attention back to his family and he didn’t think about the sounds again until a man came running towards him crying out that his brother was dead.

One hundred metres down the road, Hussein-Suale, who was 31, lay slumped in the driver’s seat of his dusty blue BMW with bullet holes in his chest and neck. Eyewitnesses said he was killed by two men who fired at the car from close range as it slowed for a junction. The first bullet hit Hussein-Suale in the neck and the car accelerated, crashing into a storefront. One of the gunmen calmly approached the driver’s side and fired two shots through the broken window directly into Hussein-Suale’s chest. Then he turned to those watching, smiled and raised a finger to his lips.

Three witnesses to the crime who live nearby told the BBC they saw the men hanging around the junction on several occasions in the week before the killing – two unfamiliar faces in a familiar neighbourhood. The men, one tall and well-built, the other short and wiry, leant on their motorbike or chatted with neighbours to pass the time. They bought alcohol from a shop and helped a man carry pails of water. One neighbour said they seemed suspicious. Another said she thought they were robbers.

But nothing was stolen from Hussein-Suale and no-one close to him believes he was a random target. He was an investigative journalist whose undercover reporting had exposed traffickers, murderers, corrupt officials and high-court judges. He worked with Tiger Eye, a highly secretive team led by one of the most famous undercover journalists in Africa, Anas Aremeyaw Anas. In Ghana and beyond, the team’s daring, anonymous reporting made them modern-day folk heroes. And it made them enemies.

When Tiger Eye aired its latest investigation, which exposed widespread corruption in African football, Ghanaian MP Kennedy Agyapong began a campaign of hostility against the team, saying he was offended by its undercover methods. He called publicly for Anas to be hanged. Weeks after the film was screened, in June last year, he used his own TV station to attack Hussein-Suale and expose the journalist’s most closely guarded secret – his face.

“That’s him,” said Agyapong, as images of Hussein-Suale appeared on screen. “His other picture is there as well, make it big.”

Agyapong revealed Hussein-Suale’s name and the neighbourhood he lived in. “If you meet him somewhere, slap him… beat him,” he said, staring into the camera. “Whatever happens, I’ll pay.”

Anas Aremeyaw Anas, in disguise, prays alongside colleagues and friends at Hussein-Suale’s funeral

No-one expected the first recorded murder of a journalist in 2019 to happen in Ghana.

Across much of Africa, authoritarian regimes have effectively suffocated the free press. But in a handful of less-repressive countries, tenacious young journalists are holding the powerful to account and advancing a culture of investigative reporting. Ghana is top of this list. Last year the country was ranked first in Africa on the annual Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. Globally it ranked 23rd out of 180 countries – well ahead of the UK (40th) and the US (45th).

Anas and his team are the nation’s most high-profile reporters. Anas has been praised by the country’s president, Nana Akufo-Addo and by President Barack Obama, who said he saw the spirit of democracy “in courageous journalists like Anas Aremeyaw Anas, who risked his life to report the truth”. In his 20 years of undercover journalism, Anas has posed as a female investor in high heels and lipstick; worked as a janitor in a brothel; got himself sent to prison; and hidden inside a fake rock at the side of the road. In public appearances, he wears a striking disguise – a hat with a multicoloured veil of beads that hangs in front of his face. In Ghana it has become a symbol of resistance to corruption that is graffitied on walls around the capital.

But behind the mask there is not just Anas’s face. There is a team of highly skilled investigative journalists that put their lives at risk to report stories, and Hussein-Suale was chief among them – Anas’s chosen team leader.

Hussein-Suale grew up among eight siblings in Wulensi, a small town in northern Ghana, where he stood out for his fierce interest in politics. At 18 he moved to Accra to study political science at the University of Ghana, where he first met Anas.

Anas had already made a name for himself as an undercover reporter and Tiger Eye was a fledgling team. Hussein-Suale sought him out the same way several early Tiger Eye employees had, by asking around until someone could tell him: that is the man known as Anas. Anas responded the way he did to all potential recruits – he set him a test: travel to Tema, north of Accra, and report a story there about cocaine. Hussein-Suale went to Tema and promptly failed. He blew his cover and got himself arrested. “He did not perform to my expectation,” said Anas, “and that was that.”

But Hussein-Suale wrote Anas a long letter explaining why he should be given another chance. “So I gave him another chance,” said Anas, in an interview with the BBC last week. “And from that day he excelled from one investigation to the next.”

“Anas is watching, do the right thing” – graffiti in the capital, Accra

Hussein-Suale’s first big story came in 2013 when he travelled with Anas to northern Ghana to expose witchdoctors behind the poisoning of children – often children with disabilities – believed to be possessed by evil spirits. In an elaborate sting typical of Tiger Eye’s style, the team arranged for the witchdoctor’s “concoction men” to visit a family home with a supposedly possessed child. While the concoction men were outside cooking their poison, the team swapped the infant for a prosthetic baby. When the men returned and took hold of the fake baby, police swooped.

The film – Spirit Child – aired internationally on Al Jazeera. Hussein-Suale, then 24, impressed Anas with his pragmatism, not hesitating when it came to entering the witchdoctor’s shrine. “The average African is spiritually afraid of traditions and gods,” Anas said. “But Ahmed was always bold.”

His natural demeanour was the opposite. He was quiet and unassuming, to a fault. “You would be likely to disregard him at first,” said Sammy Darko, Tiger Eye’s lawyer, “but that made him a good fit for investigative journalism.” He was also scrupulously attentive and diligent. He became known as the “encyclopaedia of the team” for his detailed knowledge of each project, and later as “spiritual leader” for his habit of leading a prayer before undercover operations.

His cubicle at Tiger Eye’s offices had notes and documents from various investigations piled on the desk and pasted on the walls. “He would go out quietly and do a lot of background work,” said a fellow investigator, “so that when we came on to the story we knew exactly what we were doing.” But he also had a playful streak. “I got annoyed with him once,” recalled Seamus Mirodan, the director of Spirit Child. “One of the villagers gave him a just-slaughtered guinea fowl as a gift.” Hussein-Suale put it in Mirodan’s tripod bag and it released its bowels all over the inside.

In 2015, Hussein-Suale took the lead on a story that would rock Ghana and propel Tiger Eye into the national spotlight. “Ghana in the Eyes of God” – a three-hour undercover epic based on hundreds of hours of secret filming – exposed widespread corruption in Ghana’s judiciary, showing judges and court workers accepting bribes to influence cases. More than 30 judges and 170 judicial officers were implicated. Seven of the nation’s 12 high-court judges were suspended. The film played to 6,500 people in four showings at the Accra International Conference Centre and brought gridlock to the streets of the capital.

Not everybody appreciated Tiger Eye’s methods. The team faced accusations of entrapment. “It is wrong to induce somebody by an enticement of something lucrative, big money or whatever, then turn around and say the person is corrupt,” said Charles Bentum, a lawyer for several judges implicated in the expose. “You cannot exonerate the enticer and condemn the victim.”

Tiger Eye’s undercover investigations have been screened in theatres across Ghana

The judiciary story made Anas famous in Ghana. Behind the scenes, Hussein-Suale’s combination of diligence and mettle was impressing his boss; he was becoming Anas’s right-hand man. In early 2018, Anas asked Hussein-Suale to accompany him to Malawi for a grim story about “muti” – the practice of harvesting human body parts for good luck rituals – that a young Malawian journalist, Henry Mhango, had brought to them. “I chose Hussein-Suale because I knew he had the capacity to withstand the shocks,” said Anas.

But in Malawi they would run into trouble beyond anything Hussein-Suale had experienced. Mhango had set up a rural meeting with two men who said they would kill children for their body parts. In the dark, Hussein-Suale, Anas, Mhango and producer Darius Barzargan drove with the men to the outskirts of a village to negotiate.

But the villagers had noticed the unfamiliar men meeting among the trees and suspected them of being child killers. They attacked the team, first with their feet and fists then with stones. Anas’s suit was slashed up the back with a knife. The hidden cameras kept recording as the attacks intensified. “I’m here, I’m here, let me hold you,” Anas said quietly to Hussein-Suale. Then: “They are going to kill us.”

They were saved by a courageous group of villagers who put themselves between the team and the attackers and helped them reach the house of the village chief. The mob was trying to force the door and Mhango, on his first undercover job, was shaking. Hussein-Suale sat next to him. “He told me to forget my surroundings and be strong,” Mhango recalled. “He said, ‘Henry, these are the incidents that encourage us to do even more, because our work is to fight evil.’”

Eventually, with the help of the small group of villagers, they made it out and Anas and Hussein-Suale flew back to Ghana. But Hussein-Suale stayed in touch with Mhango, mentoring him in long phone conversations over the following year.

“He told me stories about Ghana and he gave me stories in Malawi. He had a huge effect on my career,” said Mhango. “His death it not only a loss to Ghana, it is a loss to all of Africa. He was a journalist for Africa.”

Shortly after the team returned from Malawi, Tiger Eye would produce a story that would make headlines across the continent and beyond. “Number 12” was an investigation into corruption in football refereeing, and Hussein-Suale again took the lead. Referee after referee in Ghana accepted cash gifts from undercover Tiger Eye journalists, and the team set its sights beyond the nation’s borders. By the time the investigation was finished, nearly 100 football officials across Africa had accepted cash, including a Kenyan referee slated to officiate at the coming World Cup.

The investigation led to a cascade of bans and resignations. At the top of the list was Kwesi Nyantakyi, the head of the Ghanaian FA and a member of Fifa’s elite council. Mr Nyantakyi had flown to Dubai for what he believed was a meeting with a sheikh keen to invest in Ghanaian football. When he sat down in a hotel room opposite “HH Sheikh Hammad Al Thani” and stuffed $65,000 in cash into a black plastic bag, he could have no way of knowing the quiet man who arranged the meeting was Ahmed Hussein-Suale.

Mr Nyantakyi was banned from football for life, and the investigation delighted Ghanaian football fans sick of the corruption crippling the sport. It also infuriated some of Ghana’s most powerful people. Kennedy Agyapong, an MP from Ghana’s ruling party, railed against the group, saying he was offended by the way they conducted investigations. He obtained Hussein-Suale’s name and location and made them public. Tiger Eye was forced to activate safety protocols: members left Accra; the main offices were abandoned and remain largely unused; and Hussein-Suale travelled to the north, returning periodically to the capital.

When his family saw the footage of Agyapong’s rant, they urged Hussein-Suale to leave Ghana entirely, but he resisted. “He was of the view that he did not do anything wrong, that he did what he did to save the nation, so why should he leave,” said Alhassan.

Anas also instructed Hussein-Suale to take a back seat amid the publicity. Begrudgingly he did, and in time he agreed to stay away from the family home for a period. But it jarred with his character. He pushed Anas to bring him back to investigative work and he began to return to Madina. He preferred to pray at his usual mosque. He felt safe in his home neighbourhood. “You could compare it to a gangster film,” said Tiger Eye’s lawyer Sammy Darko. “The gangster always feels safe in his neighbourhood because his friends and his family are around him.”

But Ahmed was not a gangster. He was a journalist, a son, a husband, and a father to three young children. His murder has shocked Ghana and reverberated beyond its borders, drawing condemnation from President Akufo-Addo and from the UN. Press freedom activists say they fear a chilling effect for journalism on the continent. “It is the ultimate form of censorship,” said Angela Quintal, Africa co-ordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists. “You censor the person that is killed; you censor the team they work with; and you send a message to others: if you cross the line we will get you.”

A spokesman for Ghana’s police force told the BBC that all the evidence they had pointed towards a targeted assassination, and they were pursuing lines of inquiry related to Hussein-Suale’s work. Kennedy Agyapong has been informally questioned by police. He denies any responsibility for the killing, and claims Anas and his team are blackmailers who use dubious methods. Asked by the BBC if he now regretted publishing Hussein-Suale’s personal information, he said: “I don’t regret anything at all because they are evil.”

Whoever is behind Hussein-Suale’s murder, they may find that their actions have the opposite of the desired effect. In the days after his death, applications flooded in to Tiger Eye from young Ghanaian journalists keen to follow in his footsteps, Anas said. In time, Anas will vet them. Some may be set a test. “We will continue to fight,” he said. “Ahmed always said posterity would not forgive us if we did not fight.” Others vowed the same. “What happened to Ahmed will not hold me back,” said Manasseh Azure Awuni, an investigative journalist with Ghana’s Multimedia Group. “As I speak to you I am working on an investigation, and it will be broadcast in Ghana in the coming weeks.”

Hussein-Suale was laid to rest last weekend in Accra. His funeral was attended by family, friends, politicians from various parties and strangers from across the city. His murder has left a family bereft. As well as his own three children, Hussein-Suale had taken in a nephew – the son of a brother who died in the line of duty as a policeman – and he supported numerous extended family members. He covered university fees, contributed to wedding funds and paid for the upkeep on houses. He was naturally generous, said his brother Kamil. “That is how we were raised. If you have something small, you share.”

In Madina, Hussein-Suale’s family still gathers each night outside the family home. Last night they were there. For 20 years they have come together after work and prayers to sit and talk, about nothing in particular, always out front, where friends and neighbours who pass by might stop and talk for a while too.

When Tiger Eye aired its latest investigation, which exposed widespread corruption in African football, Ghanaian MP Kennedy Agyapong began a campaign of hostility against the team, saying he was offended by its undercover methods. He called publicly for Anas to be hanged. Weeks after the film was screened, in June last year, he used his own TV station to attack Hussein-Suale and expose the journalist’s most closely guarded secret – his face.

“That’s him,” said Agyapong, as images of Hussein-Suale appeared on screen. “His other picture is there as well, make it big.”

Agyapong revealed Hussein-Suale’s name and the neighbourhood he lived in. “If you meet him somewhere, slap him… beat him,” he said, staring into the camera. “Whatever happens, I’ll pay.”

Anas Aremeyaw Anas, in disguise, prays alongside colleagues and friends at Hussein-Suale’s funeral

No-one expected the first recorded murder of a journalist in 2019 to happen in Ghana.

Across much of Africa, authoritarian regimes have effectively suffocated the free press. But in a handful of less-repressive countries, tenacious young journalists are holding the powerful to account and advancing a culture of investigative reporting. Ghana is top of this list. Last year the country was ranked first in Africa on the annual Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. Globally it ranked 23rd out of 180 countries – well ahead of the UK (40th) and the US (45th).

Anas and his team are the nation’s most high-profile reporters. Anas has been praised by the country’s president, Nana Akufo-Addo and by President Barack Obama, who said he saw the spirit of democracy “in courageous journalists like Anas Aremeyaw Anas, who risked his life to report the truth”. In his 20 years of undercover journalism, Anas has posed as a female investor in high heels and lipstick; worked as a janitor in a brothel; got himself sent to prison; and hidden inside a fake rock at the side of the road. In public appearances, he wears a striking disguise – a hat with a multicoloured veil of beads that hangs in front of his face. In Ghana it has become a symbol of resistance to corruption that is graffitied on walls around the capital.

But behind the mask there is not just Anas’s face. There is a team of highly skilled investigative journalists that put their lives at risk to report stories, and Hussein-Suale was chief among them – Anas’s chosen team leader.

Hussein-Suale grew up among eight siblings in Wulensi, a small town in northern Ghana, where he stood out for his fierce interest in politics. At 18 he moved to Accra to study political science at the University of Ghana, where he first met Anas.

Anas had already made a name for himself as an undercover reporter and Tiger Eye was a fledgling team. Hussein-Suale sought him out the same way several early Tiger Eye employees had, by asking around until someone could tell him: that is the man known as Anas. Anas responded the way he did to all potential recruits – he set him a test: travel to Tema, north of Accra, and report a story there about cocaine. Hussein-Suale went to Tema and promptly failed. He blew his cover and got himself arrested. “He did not perform to my expectation,” said Anas, “and that was that.”

But Hussein-Suale wrote Anas a long letter explaining why he should be given another chance. “So I gave him another chance,” said Anas, in an interview with the BBC last week. “And from that day he excelled from one investigation to the next.”

“Anas is watching, do the right thing” – graffiti in the capital, Accra

Hussein-Suale’s first big story came in 2013 when he travelled with Anas to northern Ghana to expose witchdoctors behind the poisoning of children – often children with disabilities – believed to be possessed by evil spirits. In an elaborate sting typical of Tiger Eye’s style, the team arranged for the witchdoctor’s “concoction men” to visit a family home with a supposedly possessed child. While the concoction men were outside cooking their poison, the team swapped the infant for a prosthetic baby. When the men returned and took hold of the fake baby, police swooped.

The film – Spirit Child – aired internationally on Al Jazeera. Hussein-Suale, then 24, impressed Anas with his pragmatism, not hesitating when it came to entering the witchdoctor’s shrine. “The average African is spiritually afraid of traditions and gods,” Anas said. “But Ahmed was always bold.”

His natural demeanour was the opposite. He was quiet and unassuming, to a fault. “You would be likely to disregard him at first,” said Sammy Darko, Tiger Eye’s lawyer, “but that made him a good fit for investigative journalism.” He was also scrupulously attentive and diligent. He became known as the “encyclopaedia of the team” for his detailed knowledge of each project, and later as “spiritual leader” for his habit of leading a prayer before undercover operations.

His cubicle at Tiger Eye’s offices had notes and documents from various investigations piled on the desk and pasted on the walls. “He would go out quietly and do a lot of background work,” said a fellow investigator, “so that when we came on to the story we knew exactly what we were doing.” But he also had a playful streak. “I got annoyed with him once,” recalled Seamus Mirodan, the director of Spirit Child. “One of the villagers gave him a just-slaughtered guinea fowl as a gift.” Hussein-Suale put it in Mirodan’s tripod bag and it released its bowels all over the inside.

In 2015, Hussein-Suale took the lead on a story that would rock Ghana and propel Tiger Eye into the national spotlight. “Ghana in the Eyes of God” – a three-hour undercover epic based on hundreds of hours of secret filming – exposed widespread corruption in Ghana’s judiciary, showing judges and court workers accepting bribes to influence cases. More than 30 judges and 170 judicial officers were implicated. Seven of the nation’s 12 high-court judges were suspended. The film played to 6,500 people in four showings at the Accra International Conference Centre and brought gridlock to the streets of the capital.

Not everybody appreciated Tiger Eye’s methods. The team faced accusations of entrapment. “It is wrong to induce somebody by an enticement of something lucrative, big money or whatever, then turn around and say the person is corrupt,” said Charles Bentum, a lawyer for several judges implicated in the expose. “You cannot exonerate the enticer and condemn the victim.”

Tiger Eye’s undercover investigations have been screened in theatres across Ghana

The judiciary story made Anas famous in Ghana. Behind the scenes, Hussein-Suale’s combination of diligence and mettle was impressing his boss; he was becoming Anas’s right-hand man. In early 2018, Anas asked Hussein-Suale to accompany him to Malawi for a grim story about “muti” – the practice of harvesting human body parts for good luck rituals – that a young Malawian journalist, Henry Mhango, had brought to them. “I chose Hussein-Suale because I knew he had the capacity to withstand the shocks,” said Anas.

But in Malawi they would run into trouble beyond anything Hussein-Suale had experienced. Mhango had set up a rural meeting with two men who said they would kill children for their body parts. In the dark, Hussein-Suale, Anas, Mhango and producer Darius Barzargan drove with the men to the outskirts of a village to negotiate.

But the villagers had noticed the unfamiliar men meeting among the trees and suspected them of being child killers. They attacked the team, first with their feet and fists then with stones. Anas’s suit was slashed up the back with a knife. The hidden cameras kept recording as the attacks intensified. “I’m here, I’m here, let me hold you,” Anas said quietly to Hussein-Suale. Then: “They are going to kill us.”

They were saved by a courageous group of villagers who put themselves between the team and the attackers and helped them reach the house of the village chief. The mob was trying to force the door and Mhango, on his first undercover job, was shaking. Hussein-Suale sat next to him. “He told me to forget my surroundings and be strong,” Mhango recalled. “He said, ‘Henry, these are the incidents that encourage us to do even more, because our work is to fight evil.’”

Eventually, with the help of the small group of villagers, they made it out and Anas and Hussein-Suale flew back to Ghana. But Hussein-Suale stayed in touch with Mhango, mentoring him in long phone conversations over the following year.

“He told me stories about Ghana and he gave me stories in Malawi. He had a huge effect on my career,” said Mhango. “His death it not only a loss to Ghana, it is a loss to all of Africa. He was a journalist for Africa.”

Shortly after the team returned from Malawi, Tiger Eye would produce a story that would make headlines across the continent and beyond. “Number 12” was an investigation into corruption in football refereeing, and Hussein-Suale again took the lead. Referee after referee in Ghana accepted cash gifts from undercover Tiger Eye journalists, and the team set its sights beyond the nation’s borders. By the time the investigation was finished, nearly 100 football officials across Africa had accepted cash, including a Kenyan referee slated to officiate at the coming World Cup.

The investigation led to a cascade of bans and resignations. At the top of the list was Kwesi Nyantakyi, the head of the Ghanaian FA and a member of Fifa’s elite council. Mr Nyantakyi had flown to Dubai for what he believed was a meeting with a sheikh keen to invest in Ghanaian football. When he sat down in a hotel room opposite “HH Sheikh Hammad Al Thani” and stuffed $65,000 in cash into a black plastic bag, he could have no way of knowing the quiet man who arranged the meeting was Ahmed Hussein-Suale.

Mr Nyantakyi was banned from football for life, and the investigation delighted Ghanaian football fans sick of the corruption crippling the sport. It also infuriated some of Ghana’s most powerful people. Kennedy Agyapong, an MP from Ghana’s ruling party, railed against the group, saying he was offended by the way they conducted investigations. He obtained Hussein-Suale’s name and location and made them public. Tiger Eye was forced to activate safety protocols: members left Accra; the main offices were abandoned and remain largely unused; and Hussein-Suale travelled to the north, returning periodically to the capital.

When his family saw the footage of Agyapong’s rant, they urged Hussein-Suale to leave Ghana entirely, but he resisted. “He was of the view that he did not do anything wrong, that he did what he did to save the nation, so why should he leave,” said Alhassan.

Anas also instructed Hussein-Suale to take a back seat amid the publicity. Begrudgingly he did, and in time he agreed to stay away from the family home for a period. But it jarred with his character. He pushed Anas to bring him back to investigative work and he began to return to Madina. He preferred to pray at his usual mosque. He felt safe in his home neighbourhood. “You could compare it to a gangster film,” said Tiger Eye’s lawyer Sammy Darko. “The gangster always feels safe in his neighbourhood because his friends and his family are around him.”

But Ahmed was not a gangster. He was a journalist, a son, a husband, and a father to three young children. His murder has shocked Ghana and reverberated beyond its borders, drawing condemnation from President Akufo-Addo and from the UN. Press freedom activists say they fear a chilling effect for journalism on the continent. “It is the ultimate form of censorship,” said Angela Quintal, Africa co-ordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists. “You censor the person that is killed; you censor the team they work with; and you send a message to others: if you cross the line we will get you.”

A spokesman for Ghana’s police force told the BBC that all the evidence they had pointed towards a targeted assassination, and they were pursuing lines of inquiry related to Hussein-Suale’s work. Kennedy Agyapong has been informally questioned by police. He denies any responsibility for the killing, and claims Anas and his team are blackmailers who use dubious methods. Asked by the BBC if he now regretted publishing Hussein-Suale’s personal information, he said: “I don’t regret anything at all because they are evil.”

Whoever is behind Hussein-Suale’s murder, they may find that their actions have the opposite of the desired effect. In the days after his death, applications flooded in to Tiger Eye from young Ghanaian journalists keen to follow in his footsteps, Anas said. In time, Anas will vet them. Some may be set a test. “We will continue to fight,” he said. “Ahmed always said posterity would not forgive us if we did not fight.” Others vowed the same. “What happened to Ahmed will not hold me back,” said Manasseh Azure Awuni, an investigative journalist with Ghana’s Multimedia Group. “As I speak to you I am working on an investigation, and it will be broadcast in Ghana in the coming weeks.”

Hussein-Suale was laid to rest last weekend in Accra. His funeral was attended by family, friends, politicians from various parties and strangers from across the city. His murder has left a family bereft. As well as his own three children, Hussein-Suale had taken in a nephew – the son of a brother who died in the line of duty as a policeman – and he supported numerous extended family members. He covered university fees, contributed to wedding funds and paid for the upkeep on houses. He was naturally generous, said his brother Kamil. “That is how we were raised. If you have something small, you share.”

In Madina, Hussein-Suale’s family still gathers each night outside the family home. Last night they were there. For 20 years they have come together after work and prayers to sit and talk, about nothing in particular, always out front, where friends and neighbours who pass by might stop and talk for a while too.

Sometimes there are more than 20 people together until the early hours, sometimes there are less. The night Hussein-Suale died there were six or seven – close family and friends. He spent his last few hours with the people who raised him and shared his real life. He was quiet, as usual, and distracted by his phone, but he was in a good mood. Not everyone there knew exactly what he did. They loved him for the man he was that night in Madina. Across Ghana, people were more free because of his work.

Source: bbc.com

Properties of embattled businessman and Chief Executive Officer of gold firm Menzgold, Nana Appiah Mensah, popularly known as NAM 1, have been identified.

The listed properties include Landed Properties and Vehicles of Menzgold Ghana Limited, Menzgold Office Complex, Zylofon Art Complex, Brew Marketing Consult, Star Madrid Football Club, Zylofon Music and Media Company Limited, Brew Energy Company Limited as well as G-Tech Automobile Service.

This news of the identified properties is contained in a statement signed by Head of Public Affairs Unit, Jacquline Avotri at the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) in Accra Tuesday.

The statement was released after it secured a court order confirming the freezing of assets of Menzgold and other related businesses of NAM 1.

The rest of the properties are two (2) properties located at Trassaco Valley (Plot No. 315 and Plot No. 337), Plot of land (No. 54) near Oak Street- Trassaco Valley, Uncompleted Residence and 510 acres of land.

EOCO in its statement urged family and friends of the wanted fugitive as well as associates in possession of such properties to submit same to their outfit, in their own interest.

“By this news release, all employees of the affected companies, relatives and friends who are in possession of any of such properties are to surrender same by the authority of the high court to the Economic and Organized Crime Head Office and Regional Offices in their own interest,” the statement demanded.

The statement warns that “Failure to do so will constitute contempt of court which will attract the appropriate sanctions.”

Below is the full statement

NAM 1 who was arrested in the UAE in December 2018, for allegedly defrauding a business partner, has been declared a wanted man by a Circuit Court in Accra.

It follows similar accusations by some 60,000 persons who invested in his Menzgold firm, which has been described as experts as a Ponzi scheme.

The investors were promised a 10% returns per month on their gold deposits, however, ever since the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordered a shutdown of the non-regulated aspect of the business, Menzgold has defaulted in paying the returns and also failed to pay the initial deposits.

Source: adomonline.com

Pandemonium broke out on Monday morning January 28, 2019, in Kumasi when drivers at Sofoline in the Ashanti Regional were subjected to severe lashes by five uniformed military personnel over wrongful parking.

The drivers who have been given a designated area for loading and parking which is the Sofoline lorry terminal by city authorities decided to abandon the place and are now and operating on the roadside close to the Fourth Battalion Infantry (4BN).

Read: Adentan Riots: CPP condemns ‘police brutality’

Several knockdowns have occurred at the area where the drivers wrongfully park which also happens to be a zebra crossing for pedestrians causing unnecessary traffic around the area within some periods in the day.

Victims of these knockdown by speeding vehicles have been mostly students and travelers over the years which has been a major concern to the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA).

Read: KNUST students begin protests over alleged police brutality

MyNewsGh.com can report that the authorities of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly on several occasions have warned the drivers to vacate the area or incur their wrath but they appear adamant until the latest action by the military on Monday morning.

Source: Mynewsgh.com

Authorities of the Wa Campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS), have confided in MyNewsGh.com that Enoch Akondor, the final year BSc Development Planning student of the Wa Campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS) who committed suicide on Saturday night was academically very good.

Checks reveal that his Cumulative Grade Point Average (CPGA) was 3.32 as of second trimester 2017/2018 even before the release of results for this trimester.

It is therefore not possible that he could have taken his own life because of poor academic work as earlier reported but there are indications he had a strained relationship with someone which is yet to be unraveled.

Read: Suicide should never be an option – NUGS to Ghanaian students

The deceased prior to the incident, it was confirmed by MyNewsGh.com on Saturday night sent a suicide note to his mother in Takoradi and girlfriend.

Details of what the suicide note contains remain sketchy but his last Whatsapp status updated at 7:52 pm reads “Sorry Mama I failed you”.

Sources disclosed to MyNewsGh.com that per the suicide note, he apologized to both the mother and girlfriend for his decision and prayed they will forgive him for taking his own life.

Read: Final year UDS student commits suicide over poor examination results

It is gathered that Campus Counsellor and the Vice Dean of Students are liaising with the police to unravel the cause of the death which has left colleague of the deceased especially hostel mates in shock.

Background

Enoch Akondor believed to be in his late 20s committed suicide at his hostel room on Saturday night by hanging only for his body to be discovered by colleagues on Sunday morning.

According to them, he is always first to wake up from the hostel but they were shocked he showed no sign as at 6:30 am prompting them to knock severally at his door but there was still no response.

The services of a carpenter fro Bamahu was sought who broke into the room only to be greeted with a death of the deceased who prior to his death was readying himself to register courses for the trimester on Monday, January 28, 2019.

Source: Mynewsgh.com

The Gomoa Ojobi District Police Command has arrested two suspected highway robbers after they attacked and robbed a motor rider and a shopkeeper.

In an interview with Adom News, the Okada rider said the suspects who hired his motorbike known in local parlance as Okada, attacked him in the middle of their journey.

Read: 30 vehicles escape highway robbery attack

“They hired my motor from Buduburam Liberia Camp to Senya Breku and on our way, they sprayed pepper into my eyes and took the motor to rob a shopkeeper at Gomoa Kweikrom,” the bike owner narrated.

The Police Commander of the Ojobi District, DSP David Fofie, confirmed the arrest of the two suspects at a press briefing.

Read: Police foil robbery on Akropong-Koforidua road

“The suspects, Stephen Appau, 23 years and Alex Boadu, 25 years were identified by their victims after the Ojobi District Police Command organised an identification parade,” the police said.

DSP Fofie also revealed that investigations were underway to process the suspects for court.

Source: adomonline.com

Properties of embattled businessman and Chief Executive Officer of gold firm Menzgold, Nana Appiah Mensah, popularly known as NAM 1, have been identified.

The listed properties include Landed Properties and Vehicles of Menzgold Ghana Limited, Menzgold Office Complex, Zylofon Art Complex, Brew Marketing Consult, Star Madrid Football Club, Zylofon Music and Media Company Limited, Brew Energy Company Limited as well as G-Tech Automobile Service.

This news of the identified properties is contained in a statement signed by Head of Public Affairs Unit, Jacquline Avotri at the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) in Accra Tuesday.

Read: Submit NAM 1 assets in your own interest – EOCO orders family, friends

The statement was released after it secured a court order confirming the freezing of assets of Menzgold and other related businesses of NAM 1.

The rest of the properties are two (2) properties located at Trassaco Valley (Plot No. 315 and Plot No. 337), Plot of land (No. 54) near Oak Street- Trassaco Valley, Uncompleted Residence and 510 acres of land.

EOCO in its statement urged family and friends of the wanted fugitive as well as associates in possession of such properties to submit same to their outfit, in their own interest.

Read: EOCO secures Menzgold assets

“By this news release, all employees of the affected companies, relatives and friends who are in possession of any of such properties are to surrender same by the authority of the high court to the Economic and Organized Crime Head Office and Regional Offices in their own interest,” the statement demanded.

Read: NAM1 reportedly directs government to supervise sale of his assets

The statement warns that “Failure to do so will constitute contempt of court which will attract the appropriate sanctions.”

Below is the full statement

NAM 1 who was arrested in the UAE in December 2018, for allegedly defrauding a business partner, has been declared a wanted man by a Circuit Court in Accra.

It follows similar accusations by some 60,000 persons who invested in his Menzgold firm, which has been described as experts as a Ponzi scheme.

The investors were promised a 10% returns per month on their gold deposits, however, ever since the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordered a shutdown of the non-regulated aspect of the business, Menzgold has defaulted in paying the returns and also failed to pay the initial deposits.

Source: adomonline.com

The Passport Office and the Regional Passport Application Centres will no longer process manual passport applications effective Thursday, February 28, 2019.

This was disclosed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration in a statement issued January 28, 2019.

Read: Passport office will not accept old manual passport applications Ministry of Foreign Affairs

According to the Ministry, it is part of an initiative to migrate old manual passport application forms to the new manual downloadable passport application forms.

The old manual passport application forms were obtainable at selected banks upon payment but the new application process is done electronically.

Read: Ghanaian passport ranked 77th strongest globally

The e-payment is either made via MTN Mobile Money, Vodafone Cash, MasterCard or Visa Card.

Source: Graphic.com.gh

A high court in Accra has ordered all employees of troubled Menzgold Ghana Limited and all its sister companies, to surrender every company property in their possession to the Economic and Organise Crime Office (EOCO)

Also, relatives and friends of the owner, Nana Appiah Mensah, who are in possession of any property of the companies are to surrender same to EOCO, the court order freezing the landed assets and vehicles of Menzgold and its subsidiaries companies said.

Read: EOCO secures Menzgold assets

“All employees of the affected company, relatives and friends who are in possession of any of such properties to surrender same by the authority of the High Court to the Economic and Organised Crime Head office and regional offices in their own interest,” EOCO said.

In a statement issued in Accra Tuesday, EOCO which is investigating Nana Appiah Mensah for economic crime arising out of the Menzgold debacle said any employee, relative or friend who fails to comply with the order will be in contempt of court.

Read: Government to help pay back Menzgold customers by selling off seized assets of NAM 1

Such breaches, it explained, “will attract the appropriate sanctions”.

It has meanwhile appealed to the general public “to assist EOCO by giving information to facilitate the retrieval of all vehicles and properties not listed in the freezing order”.

Read: Seize, sell Menzgold and NAM1’s assets to pay clients Ato Forson to government

Per the court order, EOCO has been directed to take possession of landed properties and vehicles of Menzgold Ghana Limited, Menzgold office complex, Zylogon Art Complex, Brew Marketing Consult, Star Madrid Football Club, Zylofon Music and Media Company Limited, and Brew Energy Company.

The rest are G-Tech Automobile Service, two properties located at Trassaco Valley; that is plot No. 315 and plot No.337, plot of land (No. 54) near Oak Street-Trassaco Valley, an uncompleted residence, and 510 acres of land.

Source: 3news.com

The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), says it has secured a court order confirming the freezing of assets of Menzgold and other related businesses belonging to its CEO, Nana Appiah Mensah (NAM 1).

EOCO in a release Tuesday, January 29 and signed by Public Relations Officer, Jacquline Avotri, advised family members of the wanted fugitive as well as associates in possession of such properties to submit them to their EOCO in their own interest.

Read: EOCO secures Menzgold assets

“By this news release, all employees of the affected companies, relatives and friends who are in possession of any of such properties are to surrender same by the authority of the high court to the Economic and Organized Crime Head Office and Regional Offices in their own interest. Failure to do so will constitute contempt of court which will attract the appropriate sanctions,” the statement read in part.

The listed properties include Landed Properties and Vehicles of Menzgold Ghana Limited, Menzgold Office Complex, Zylofon Art Complex, Brew Marketing Consult, Star Madrid Football Club, Zylofon Music and Media Company Limited, Brew Energy Company Limited as well as G-Tech Automobile Service.

Read: SEC, EOCO collaborate to investigate Menzgold

The rest are Two (2) properties located at Trassaco Valley (Plot No. 315 and Plot No. 337), Plot of land (No. 54) near Oak Street- Trassaco Valley, Uncompleted Residence and 510 acres of land.

NAM 1 who was arrested in the UAE in December 2018, for allegedly defrauding a business partner, has been declared a wanted man by a Circuit Court in Accra.

It follows similar accusations by some 60,000 persons who invested in his Menzgold firm, which has been described as experts as a Ponzi scheme.

Read: Menzgold smacked of a Ponzi scheme; customers ignored warnings Joe Jackson

The investors were promised a 10% returns per month on their gold deposits, however, ever since the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordered a shutdown of the non-regulated aspect of the business, Menzgold has defaulted in paying the returns and also failed to pay the initial deposits. 

The customers are said to include bankers, small-scale miners, top military and police officers, clergymen and women and Ghanaians living abroad.

Source: Myjoyonline.com

The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has secured a court order to freeze all landed properties and vehicles belonging to the embattled Chief Executive Officer of Menzgold Ghana Limited, Nana Appiah Mensah, alias NAM 1.

The landed properties include Menzgold Ghana Limited, Menzgold Office Complex, Zylofon Art Complex, Brew Marketing Consult, Star Mad. Football Club, Zylofon Music and Media Company Limited, Brew Energy Company Limited and G. Tech Automobile Service.

Read: EOCO secures Menzgold assets

Others include two properties located at Trassaco Valley; namely Plot No. 315 and Plot No. 337, a plot of land (No 54) near Oak Street, Trassaco Valley, an uncompleted residence and 510 acres of land.

A statement issued on Tuesday, January 29, 2019, and signed by the Head of Public Affairs at EOCO, Jacqueline Avotri, therefore, directed all employees of the affected companies, relatives and friends in possession of any of the properties to surrender them to the office.

Read: Hope for Menzgold customers as EOCO seizes NAM1 mansions, cars

“Failure to do so will constitute contempt of court which will attract the appropriate sanctions,” the statement said.

It further implored the public to provide information to the EOCO to facilitate the retrieval of all vehicles and properties not listed in the freezing order

Source: Graphic.com.gh

A teacher at the Klo Agogo Anglican Primary School in the Yilo Krobo District of the Eastern Region has been shot twice by suspected armed robbers.

The victim, Kofi Nartey, believed to be in his 40s has been refereed to the Eastern Regional Hospital in Koforidua.

Read: Tema Police shoot two suspected robbers dead

“He was shot at the rib side and on the hand, i just visited him at the hospital and he is responding to treatment.The condition is not too good but not too bad. We are hoping he will survive it,” a family Member told Starr News.

The incident occurred Tuesday dawn at Obawale while the victim, who is also a mobile money operator, was asleep.

Information gathered from the community indicates that it took the effort of the Police and residents to apprehend one of the suspects while efforts are underway to arrest other accomplices.

Read: Police on manhunt for robbers in Dansoman shooting

It is not clear if the other accomplices managed to abscond with some valuables.

Residents of Klo Agogo have been living in fear in recent times following increasing robbery cases in the area.

Some months ago, a fuel station in the community was attacked by robbers who hacked the head of one of the staff and took away over GHC6,000 sales.

Few days later, the armed robbers struck again to rob another resident.

Source: Starrfmonline.com

Months after a shutdown of the Accra to Tema railway line, operations have commenced today, Tuesday, with the train embarking on its first test run.

The 6 carriage train which has the capacity to carry 600 passengers will for the next 2 weeks offer free rides to passengers.

Speaking to Citi News, Deputy Managing Director of the Ghana Railway Company Limited, Dr. Michael Adjei Anyatei assured passengers of safer rides.

Read: AccraBurkina Faso railway to traverse Yendi Akufo-Addo

“The resumption of the train to commute people from Accra to Tema is a bold step in decongesting the city by providing safer and cheaper means for people who come in and out of the city. As you know, the city has a resident population of about 1.9 million but during the day the number goes to about 4 million.”

He said the number goes up largely because Accra is the hub of business and a lot of companies have their head offices in Accra “so everybody moves to the city centre early in the morning and leave by evening.”

Read: Nsawam-Accra railway ready by end of January Richard Dombo

“So providing a better alternative means of coming into the city it will be a better way of decongesting the roads and making the roads much safer,” he added.

The Railway Company postponed the free rides early on in January 2019 to take care of some repair works on the tracks.

The company also said the postponement was due to the activities of squatters along the tracks.

Source: citinewsroom.com

The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Mensa has stressed the need to ‘address the high costs of our elections’. 

She opined that relying on developing partners to partly fund or lessen the burden of the cost of elections in Ghana compromises the independence of the elections; hence more work must be done to address such issues.

Read: We will be well prepared for District Assembly elections – EC Chair

Ms Mensa speaking at the 17th international electoral affairs symposium said “our elections are fast becoming a very expensive venture and we constantly have to rely on development partners to fund this thereby compromising our independence. In 2016 for example, the cost of elections in Ghana was $12.03 per voter, compared to $9.33 per voter in Nigeria (2015) and $5 per voter in Tanzania (2015)”. 

According to her, while the EC has made significant progress towards perfecting its systems and processes in the last two decades, more work must be done to address the high costs of our elections and the challenge of building institutional capacity. 

Read: Donor support compromises elections EC Boss

“For us at the Electoral Commission of Ghana, we are keen to learn about advances made in the area of technology, having operated the same biometric registration and voting systems for the last ten years. How can we leapfrog and begin to use new technologies in our electoral process? 

What new biometric systems are the most efficient and most reliable? Since our assumption of office we have been concerned about the high cost associated with the procurement of hardware namely biometric registration and verification devices used in the electoral process. Therefore feedback and information on efficient systems and equipment thatprovide value for money will be useful to this meeting” she added.

Source: Peacefmonline.com

Gender and Social Protection Minister, Cynthia Morrison has met with the Nigerian High Commissioner to Ghana Monday, on how his outfit can help find the three girls alleged to have been kidnapped in the Sekondi/Takoradi metropolis.

According to the minister, the meeting with the High Commissioner was successful and that he has agreed to visit the suspect, Samuel Udoetuk Wills in order to get more information from him.

Madam Morrison said the expected meeting will help get more vital information from the suspect since he speaks the same dialect with the Commissioner.

“I believe that when he sees him, maybe he will be comfortable around him and there will be certain information that we can get, that is what I feel as a mother,” the minister said.

Speaking with Joy News, Madam Morrison said that the Commissioner has been very cooperative, and has sent his people to Takoradi to ascertain the situation.

She advised against treating all Nigerians as suspects.

“I keep saying it is a Nigerian that has done this and not all Nigerians are kidnappers. We should try and not lump all of them together, otherwise, it can escalate elsewhere. There are also Ghanaians in Nigeria and other parts of the world, if one Ghanaian does something and they brand all Ghanaians as the same thing that the Ghanaian has done, it is not good for us”, she said.

She added that the Commissioner expressed some concern about Ghanaians lumping all Nigerians together as kidnappers since they have lived in peace with Ghanaians before this case.

Source: Graphic.com.gh

The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress who doubles as a Vice President of the Socialist International (SI) has led the party to an SI council meeting in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Johnson Asiedu-Nketiah is accompanied by the Deputy Director of International Relations for the NDC, Dr. Karl Mark Arhin, among others.

The Council meeting which is scheduled to take place on January 28-29, will be hosted by a member party in the said country, the Dominican Revolutionary Party, PRD.

The meeting will discuss among other major issues, how to protect our democracies from emerging new threats such as the deliberate discrediting of democratic institutions; the press; fake news; cyber-attacks and invasive technology.

Source: classfmonline.com