Prez Mahama Once Carried My Video Camera...

Ace undercover investigative journalist Anas a Aremeyaw Anas said he and President John Mahama worked together on one of his riskiest investigative pieces at Bole in the past.

It was the Bole Rebo Raid in which Anas sought to expose the abductors of a chief.

President Mahama was then the Member of Parliament for the Bole-Bamboi constituency and he joined Anas on that mission to retrace the routes of the rebels and abductors.

"I worked together with the president on that risky story - he carried the camera and filmed the whole incident - I am sure he still has those clips because he personally shot them," Anas told Jefferson Sackey in an exclusive interview on Jefferson Reports

Anas was on the show to discuss a new and detailed documentary dubbed "The Chameleon" made by Canadian filmmaker Ryan Mullens on the life and work of Anas.

Anas noted that in that investigation he was chased from Côte d'Ivoire through the bushes and he ended up in Ghana and he thought that was too risky because anything could have happened to him.

He said that Bole story was one of his regrets and if given another chance, he would not take that risk and go to the dwelling place of rebels without proper security protection.

But the risk he regrets taking most was pretending to be a Catholic priest and entering a Bangkok Torture Chamber in Thailand to secretly film the crimes being committed there.

"That was just too risky. I won't do that again - if I had been captured the Ghana Embassy in Thailand would not have known about it because it would have looked like I was playing in the devils mouth and I was captured," he said.

Anas said as an undercover investigative journalist, he has moments of fear for his life and for his family, but he trusts in the security measures put in place by the institutions he works with both at home and abroad, to protect him and all his beneficiaries.

He also recounted how some people believe and insist he uses juju powers to vanish and go through walls when he gets into trouble, saying that his work is purely science and nothing magical.

"We take very strict security precautions and iron out all the little details of how we will go in and get out no matter what happens. So it may look like magic but it is all science," he said.

Touching on the questions raised about the ethics of his work he said he believes in "the end justifies the means" because at the end of the day it is about what impact his works make and how it benefits society.

"I don't know what these apostles of ethics are talking about. All I care about is the result I get for society. Once I get that I am happy. Let them call me whatever name I don't care."

"Sometimes I wonder at the double standards. In one breath they are questioning your style of journalism, in another breath CNN, BBC, Aljazeera and other major global media houses are willing to work with you, so what are they saying," he asked.

Anas said in spite of the criticism he will continue to do the kind of journalism he does because "I am convinced that when evil men destroy, good men must build."

People have also questioned his independence as a journalist since he tends to work with state institutions who assist his work. But he explained that independence is about editorial judgment and as far as what he finally puts out is concerned, that is completely at his editorial discretion.

He described his recent investigative piece on corruption in the judiciary as the most expensive and most regrettable, saying in a soft tone, of the bribe taking in exchange for justice, "it is not nice...not nice at all."