Manasseh Azure Awuni an award-winning investigative journalist has fired shots at state-owned Daily Graphic.
The investigative journalist in a letter addressed to the Daily Graphic quizzed if the state-owned media house is the mouthpiece of corruption.
His comments come on the back of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) detaining three Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) company directors in a raid on Monday, June 10.
According to reports, Investigators are said to be particularly interested in accessing electronic data stored on the company’s servers.
The Daily Graphic in a social media post accused the OSP and National Security of disrupting the SML’s real-time monitoring system.
Reacting to the Daily Graphic post, Manasseh wrote, “I have seen a story you published on the Office of Special Prosecutor’s raid on the offices of SML, the company at the centre of corruption investigation by the OSP. Yesterday, many newspapers published almost the same headline, as if the story was written from one source.
As the state newspaper is considered credible, I didn’t expect you to join this shameful agenda.
It is even more worrying that you have not learnt a lesson after you published a false story promoting SML on your front page. I’m referring to your story that claimed SML’s operation had saved Ghana GHS3 billion”.
He added, “During my investigation, I discovered that even if all the revenue from the downstream petroleum sector were credited to SML’s operation, it would not be up to GHS3 billion. When I confronted the Managing Director of SML, Christian Sottie, he said the media reports were false. You, Daily Graphic, had the story on your front page.
He could not defend the false claim. With the rotten eggs on your face, Graphic should have washed your hands off the shady operations of SML.
But here you, without any evidence and without citing any source or naming an oil company, claimed that oil cartels were behind the OSP and National Security raid.
For your information, no oil company is affected by the operations of SML. The company lied that its work was curbing under-reporting, dilution and diversion of petroleum products and the general non-compliance in the downstream petroleum sector”.
Manasseh Azure emphasized that if the Daily Graphic cannot help expose wrongdoing as a media organisation they should not undermine the efforts of those doing so.
The investigative journalist added, “It’s therefore shameful that the Daily Graphic would join the fray of this devious agenda to shield SML from accountability.
If you cannot help expose wrongdoing as a media organisation, don’t undermine the efforts of those doing so. Since this investigation, there has been a narrative that companies affected by SML were behind our story.
Now that same falsehood is being peddled against state institutions. I challenge SML and its defenders to name a single company, business or individual whose anomaly SML has detected after receiving over $141 million in payments from the government.
A state-owned newspaper should not be a mouthpiece for corruption”, he added boldly.
See the post below:
IS DAILY GRAPHIC A MOUTHPIECE OF CORRUPTION?
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Dear Daily Graphic,I have seen a story you published on the Office of Special Prosecutor’s raid on the offices of SML, the company at the centre of corruption investigation by… pic.twitter.com/Wv1i0mtOs5
— Manasseh Azure Awuni (@Manasseh_Azure) June 12, 2025
