Number12 Expose: Where is your integrity and consistency Mohammed Amin Lamptey- Sports Journalist questions

Sports journalist Rabiu Gariba of fox fm has questioned the integrity and consistency of colleague journalist Mohammed Amin Lamptey on Anas’s Number 12 expose that shook the fundation of Ghana football 

Fellows and elders I greet you with the wonderful salutation of Islam -Asalamu Alaikum and may Allah let us see more and more of this blessed month of Ramadan. We also pray that He makes things easy for us in this difficult period of Covid-19. 

The purpose of this piece is to highlight the worrying double standard of the famous Ghanaian journalist Mohammed Amin Lamptey who has publicly supported the submissions of the learned and respected Justice Amadu Tanko on the issue of the Muslim girl covering her hair in the public classroom while receiving education and the second issue of the Justice labelling the Islamic method of inheritance as discriminatory against Women. 

“I have in my possession a video in which an Islamic cleric Sheikh Umar gave his take of opinion regarding the submissions of the Supreme Court of Ghana nominee Justice Amadu  to the Parliament vetting committee on 11th May 2020. In the video Sheikh Umar was being interviewed by Amin Lamptey whose voice was clearly captured. 

For starters when the Ghana Football Association president Kwesi Nyantakyi was captured under hidden camera in damning corrupt circumstances in the Anas Number 12 football corruption video in June 2018, Mohammed Amin Lamptey came out publicly to condemn Anas Aremeyaw Anas and the entire Tiger Eye PI group and by so doing he also urged all Ghanaians and the world to rubbish the Anas video because according to journalist Amin Lamptey the Anas method of work was unislamic and unethical. Lamptey intelligently quoted several Quranic verses and produced Islamic jurisprudence and Hadiths (Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad SAW) to support his fruitless exercise and below I reproduce exactly what Amin Lamptey said at the time. 

“’The Islamic perspective is so important because of the personality Anas Aremeyaw Anas who to all intents and purposes is a Muslim. Other Muslim Journalists will find this piece extremely significant for their own good. I respectfully want to dare our respected Muslim Clerics to come out and speak to the issue to help correct the misconception about the work of a journalist especially those with the Muslim faith. My brother and colleague Anas Aremeyaw Anas will see this piece as a clarion call to revise his mode of investigative journalism or to provide him with the needed impetus to delve deep into the Holy Quran and Hadith for the betterment of his job. I personally do not think a journalist of his standings whose duty and responsibility is to help the forward match of his country should go under the cover without public appearance. Unthinkable!” 

Amin Lamptey continued to say this in relation to Anas: “I have been pelted with the question over the past years as to whether Anas is a Muslim, and my swift answer without blinking an eye is YES!. Most of the questions actually came from Muslim Clerics and Ghanaian Students of Knowledge studying outside Ghana. They are all unanimous in their quest to know whether Anas Aremeyaw Anas as a Muslim Journalist considers the Islamic Ethics of Journalism in his work especially in news gathering, story packaging, quality control, storytelling and delivery.”

These were the exact words and argument of Amin Lamptey published on Ghanaweb.com on 3rd June 2018 under the title “Anas’s mode of investigative journalism unethical, unislamic” all in his quest to discredit the groundbreaking Number 12 expose by Anas and the Tiger Eye PI. 

By day and night , Lamptey quoted Quranic verses and Hadiths of the Holy Prophet Muhammad ( S.A.W) to prove his point that indeed the professional job of Anas – going undercover to uncover graft in Ghana football – has no basis in Islam and ethically wrong in journalism.  

But nearly two years later after the Anas video, on this never-ending issue of the Muslim woman wearing her veil (Hijab) in public places like the school, the same Amin Lamptey has genuinely failed or hypocritically refused to apply his “unislamic standard of judgement” to Justice Amadu Tanko’s unislamic submissions on this hot issue of Hijab during his vetting and his labeling of the Islam inheritance as discriminatory against women. 

If one carefully considers what Amadu Tanko said in relation to the Hijab issue and inheritance in Islam, one will realize that he was legally, constitutionally and per the laws of our country Ghana correct with his answer but Islamically he was not. Islamically he wrong because the modest dress code for the Muslim woman (covering of the hair ) as stated clearly in Quran Chapter 24 verse 31 does not make exceptions about where such dress code cannot be observed and so by an easy understanding , for anyone to urge the prevention of this dress code – regardless of place and location - goes contrary to what the Holy Quran stipulates and that typically represent unislamic. Indeed that is exactly what Justice Amadu Tanko did with his submission during his vetting regarding the wearing of Hijab by the Muslim girl in the public classroom to receive tuition. 

Secondly the Islamic inheritance formula was not given by man. It is a Quranic direction and for anyone to describe the Almighty’s direction as discriminatory represents ignorance in the Islamic perspective but of course from the angle of secular law and the strong modern-day advocacy for vulnerable groups like women and children in our societies then Mr. Amadu was clever and intelligent with his answer. But there is religion and there is secularism. The two will never mix to become one till Aakhira. 

Don’t forget that I have already made the point that Amadu Tanko was legally, constitutionally, per the laws of the land and by common sense correct with his answer to the Hijab and Inheritance questions that were posed to him by the Parliament’s vetting panel but he was not Islamically correct. This is not in doubt. 

There arise the double standard and wanton hypocrisy of Mohammed Amin Lamptey who wanted Anas Aremeyaw Anas to have respected Islamic way of doing things in his professional job at one time in 2018 and in another breath in 2020 the same Amin Lamptey – who preached Islamic manner of doing things to Anas day and night -  now makes the argument that Justice Amadu Tanko – for the fact that he is a Muslim by faith - did not appear at the Parliament vetting committee to be Islamic and to defend Islamic core values because Ghana is not a Muslim nation and I quote verbatim what Amin Lamptey wrote on 13th May 2020. 

“What many Ghanaians, especially Muslims expected to be a moment of celebration seem to hit a temporary snag due to misconceptions and the lack of appreciation of critical legal issues concerning veiling of school going Muslim girls and the distribution of estate in accordance with Sharia Law. It is very important to state that the Supreme Court Judge nominee was not necessarily at the vetting to present the position and defend the position of all Muslims in Ghana. Undoubtedly he was there to find a way of answering questions to the best of his ability to be approved.” Amin Lamptey wrote in support of Justice Amadu Tanko’s comments. 

So for Amin Lamptey to support that Amadu Tanko was right in every sense because he needed to answer the questions the way he did in order to get qualified and accepted as a Supreme Court judge – but Anas Aremeyaw Anas cannot go undercover to name and shame corrupt public figures because it is unislamic. What an inexplicable logic. 

I proceed to ask again : When Anas did the football corruption video in 2018 was Ghana a Muslim-dominated country by that time that Amin Lamptey wanted the investigative journalist to have followed Islamic way of doing things and also respect aspects of Sharia Law regarding secret recording in journalism? 

This double standard of Mr. Lamptey is legendary and I struggle to understand whether it is a deliberate or a genuine failure and for me if you preach Islamic jurisprudence , if you wanted Anas to have respected Islamic way of doing things when he caught Kwesi Nyantakyi on hidden camera taking a FIFA prohibited money,  then you should not deviate from subjecting Justice Amadu Tanko to the same standard of judgement. 

Instead Amin Lamptey is defending the Supreme Court nominee, Amadu Tanko, on the basis of legality and Ghana law. His strict standard of Islamic judgement that he subjected Anas Aremeyaw Anas to doesn’t work anymore,  at least, not on Amadu Tanko because Tanko is untouchable and beyond reproach according to Mr.Lamptey’s logic. 

Where is your integrity and consistency Mohammed Amin Lamptey? 

Moreover there are 2 more issues and questions to ask from the video recording that Amin Lamptey had with Sheikh Umar.

1.The first speech in the video was that of Amin Lamptey who said in Hausa “ Sheikh Mu naa jin ka” meaning “Sheikh we are listening to you”. What was the question put before Sheikh Umar before he started talking? Excuse me. Is he mad that he will start talking once a camera was open on him without no one asking him a question? 

According to journalistic ethics – used by Amin Lamptey to preach against Anas Aremeyaw Anas in 2018 – it is unethical for an interviewee to start talking and answering questions without the audience knowing what question was put to the interviewee by the interviewer in the first place? Is that what Amin Lamptey teaches his students? Once again he judged Anas Number 12 video on the ethical standard of journalism and the same Lamptey even commits a worse offense. 

As a seasoned journalist , Amin Lamptey –a loud supporter of journalism ethics – failed to live up to his own standard and what he expect others to do and it is embarrassing and reputation-damaging.  

2. Did Amin Lamptey make Sheikh Umar aware that his audio and video of the conversation was being recorded? Some people believe Mr. Umar was not aware that he was being recorded and for this , since morning I have personally tried without success to hear from Amin Lamptey whether indeed Sheikh Umar was aware of the recording or not. 

My calls to Mr. Lamptey have not been answered and my WhatApp messages to him have remained un-replied. Therefore I humbly ask Mr.Amin Lamptey to respond to the allegations by telling the public whether he made Mr.Umar aware of the video recording or not. 

However if it happens to be that Mr.Umar was not aware then this would represent another case of double standard because Lamptey fiercely argued and defended Kwesi Nyantakyi’s conduct whilst discrediting Anas Aremeyaw Anas that to record someone under hidden camera was ethically and islamically wrong. 

Where is your integrity and consistency Mohammed Amin Lamptey? 

Asalamu Alaikum. 

By Gariba Raubil