On Monday, April 17, 2023, GhanaWeb carried a report with the headline, “NPP aspirant for Kumawu by-election indicted by US court for absconding to Ghana with $837,955” which was sourced from The Chronicle newspaper.

In the story, GhanaWeb reported on how a New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary hopeful for the upcoming by-election in the Kumawu Constituency in the Ashanti Region, Dr Philip Bannor, had been reportedly indicted by a court in the United States of America (US).

Dr Bannor was one of eight NPP members who filed their nominations for the party’s primaries for the bye-election.

According to a news report by The Chronicle newspaper, Dr Bannor’s chance of passing the NPP’s vetting, which was held on Sunday, April 16, 2023, was in jeopardy following this said indictment by a US court.

The report also indicated that the MP aspirant was indicted and accused of absconding to Ghana with $837,955 in liabilities by the US court on January 21, 2022.

However, the lawyers of the MP-aspirant have written to The Chronicle, to explain that the use of the word ‘indictment’ in the case of their client is wrongly used.

The apology by The Chronicle newspaper read, “According to the lawyers, an indictment in our common law jurisdiction and US jurisprudence connotes criminality that is established beyond an initial prima facie threshold, therefore, an indicted person is one charged in a court with a serious criminal offense.

“They contend that Dr. Philip Bannor had never been charged or indicted anywhere in the world with a criminal offense, and that what transpired in the US court was a pure civil suit.”

The paper has since withdrawn the word “indicted” from the story and has apologised to the NPP member.

GhanaWeb is by this report, indicating the said updates on the story.

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