Ghanaian journalist Ahmed Husein, who helped expose corruption in African football, was hailed a “national hero” on Friday, as his friends and family gathered for his funeral.
The 34-year-old reporter was gunned down as he returned to his home in the Madina area of the capital, Accra, on Wednesday night, in a killing that sparked outrage.
Husein was part of an investigative team that lifted the lid on graft in the sport last year, which lead to the sanction of a string of top officials, coaches and referees.
His body, wrapped in a white shroud, was brought from a central Accra mortuary to a mosque in Madina before prayers, followed by calls for those responsible to face justice.
Among those attending was Anas Aremeyaw Anas, the head of Tiger Eye productions, who led the corruption investigation, an AFP reporter said.
Ghana Journalist Association president Affial Monney told AFP: “We have lost a national hero as far as investigative journalism is concerned.”
Before his body was lowered into the ground at the nearby Muslim cemetery, the imam told mourners Husein was “working for the nation to expose corruption”.
Police said Husein was shot in the chest and neck. Anas and Tiger Eye said the gunmen fired at closed range from a motorbike and he died instantly.
The killing has shocked Ghana, which prides itself on being a stable democracy in an often turbulent region, and where media freedom is reasonably high and improving.
Ghana ranked 23rd out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2018 World Press Freedom Index — up three places on the previous year.
Husein had complained to police after a prominent lawmaker from President Nana Akufo-Addo’s ruling New Patriotic Party called on supporters to find and beat him.
Kennedy Agyapong appeared on television, showed the reporter’s picture and called him “very dangerous”. He promised to pay anyone who attacked him.
On Thursday he denied claims he had “engineered the killing” and said he had never been offended by Husein. But his view of his work, and that of Anas, appeared unchanged.
“The evil they have been doing will follow them,” he added.
