Everything you need to know about the assassination of Ghanaian investigative journalist, Ahmed Hussein-Suale

In the final hours of Wednesday, January 16, 2019, investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen on a motorbike while he was driving past the Queen of Peace Catholic Church in the Madina suburb of Accra, Ghana.

Hussein-Suale was a member of Tiger Eye Private Investigations, run by renowned Ghanaian journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, who remains unknown and always wears a mask when appearing in public. Last year, Tiger Eye PI exposed the deep corruption within the Ghanaian Football Association, an investigation that led to the lifetime ban of the former association chief, Kwesi Nyantakyi, and a dissolution of the entire body by the government. After a documentary about the corruption scandal was published by the BBC, Hussein-Suale’s picture was revealed to the public by a Ghanaian politician and Member of Parliament, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong in a documentary he produced titled ‘Who Watches the Watchman’, criticising Anas and his investigative methods.

Kennedy Ohene Agyapong Adom Online

Agyapong, a man with a history of incendiary behaviour, in the past, called for retribution against Hussein-Suale during a live radio interview and repeatedly threatened Anas. His comments attracted the attention of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters without Borders, fearing for the life of the journalist whose identity he had revealed. CPJ also said that Anas and his team had “received threatening anonymous phone calls and been subject to physical surveillance”, adding that Hussein-Suale “was afraid assassins would be hired to kill him.”

Anas Aremeyaw Anas Anas Aremeyaw Anas/Twitter

He told CPJ, “Indeed, it [has] been hinted in some quarters that the very man who published [my image] said he was doing everything possible to quell [my] existence.”

All this was in mid-2018. Months later, Hussein-Suale has been assassinated. There are, however, no links yet between the assassination and Agyapong’s documentary and inciteful comments and, according to him, the police have not yet called him in for questioning.

What we know so far

The assistant commissioner of police and director general for public affairs and communications at police headquarters in Accra, David Senanu Eklu told CPJ that detectives from the criminal investigation division have already begun investigating the death.

There is also an ongoing manhunt for the unidentified gunmen on the motorbike.

Speaking to Graphic Online, a Ghanaian digital publication, Mrs Effia Tenge, Deputy Superintendent of Police, said that “an eyewitness told the police that [Hussein-Suale] was shot three times through the driver's side of the car.”

She added that he was taken to the Pentecost Hospital, Madina for treatment but was pronounced dead on arrival. The police found three empty shells at the crime scene while the car the deceased was in has been impounded.